New Deilh (TIP)– The Law Commission of India has recommended that the 153-year-old colonial law on sedition in India be retained, insisting that “repealing the legal provision can have serious adverse ramifications for the security and integrity of the country”. Instead, the Commission favoured amending Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (sedition law) “so as to bring about more clarity in the interpretation, understanding and usage of the provision”. The operation of Section 124A in the IPC – a non-bailable offence punishable with life imprisonment or up to three years in jail, and one that activists and jurists have alleged is often misused to muzzle dissent, is currently on hold due to a continuing interim order of the Supreme Court passed on May 11, 2022. The court said at the time the colonial-era law is not in tune with the social milieu.
According to the Commission, headed by former Karnataka high court chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Section 124A should be amended to align it with the Supreme Court’s 1962 verdict in the Kedar Nath Case, which underlined that the presence of a pernicious tendency to incite violence is a precondition to invoke the sedition clause, and that the penal provision cannot be used to stifle free speech.
It added that the sedition law, which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment or a punishment of three years, should be further amended to enhance the alternative punishment to seven years, giving the courts greater room to award punishment for a case of sedition in accordance with the scale and gravity of the act.
Hours later, Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the government will take an “informed and reasoned” decision on the report after consultations with all stakeholders. “The law commission report on Sedition is one of the steps in the extensive consultative process. The recommendations made in the report are persuasive and not binding,” Meghwal said on Twitter.
“This report is one of the steps in the extensive consultative processes. The government’s priority is to protect the interest of all stakeholders. We will now consult all stakeholders so that a decision can be made in the public interest at an appropriate time,” he tweeted in Hindi.
Law Commission of India is a non-statutory body, working under the aegis of the Union ministry of law and justice. Following definite terms of reference from the department of legal affairs, the Commission carries out research in the field of law and makes recommendations to the Centre in the form of reports. These recommendations are not binding on the government, though they may have some persuasive value.
Considered by legal experts as among the vaguest of penal provisions, Section 124a was introduced by the British to stymie the freedom struggle. After independence, too, the provision has been misused by various administrations against citizens, fuelling allegations of intimidation. Conviction rates stagnate in low single-digits, underlining that many cases have little material evidence. This is why the authorities should consider scrapping the law. Source: HT