Polity

Sir please review my answer

KEY POINTS

·         Sec 124 A deals with sedition and it says that the act of Sedition is to bring hatred or contempt towards the Government established by law in India.

·         The Law Commission in its recent consultation paper calls for a thorough reconsideration.

·         A thorough overhaul of Section 124-A is good because,

·         Purpose – It is an irony to retain a provision that was used extensively to suppress the freedom struggle, when Britain itself abolished it 10 years ago.

·         Misuse – There have been repeated instances of misuse of the Section.

·         Definition – The definition of sedition remains too wide.

·         Under the present law strong criticism against government policies and personalities, slogans voicing disapprobation of leaders and depictions of an unresponsive or insensitive regime are all likely to be treated as ‘seditious’, and not merely those that overtly threaten public order or constitute actual incitement to violence.

·         The core principle enunciated by the Supreme Court in recent times that incitement to violence or tendency to create public disorder is the essential ingredients of the offence have been forgotten.

Way forward

·         As long as sedition is seen as a reasonable restriction on free speech on the ground of preserving public order, it will be difficult to contain its mischief.

·         There are thus two ways of undoing the harm that sedition provision does to citizens’ fundamental rights:

1.       It can be amended so that there is a much narrower definition of what constitutes sedition

2.      The second and best course is to repeal the section altogether

Kindly review

Please review

Please review