Prologue

During the pre-colonial era, there was little-to-nothing known about sedition in India. The ancient civilisations had least interest in formal governance and kingship was the then ideal form of governance. However, this phase never lasted forever. Soon the British era in India marked a shift in the ideas of governance, change in culture, socio-economic changes, and the drastic improvement in political knowledge among the youths. Citizens began to realise the worth of their country and nationalism became a street gospel sang everywhere around the country. These were due to the need to reclaim the sovereignty of the country from the foreign traders turned rulers. These changes came along with several challenges and conflicting interests among the citizens of the country. Sedition, a criminal offence characterised by acts to distort public peace and de-campaign the established ruling system, is one of those major challenges, inter alia, which required both amicable and severe management in order to maintain social coherence, public order, and general welfare. In an attempt to prescribe measures to address these challenges, several laws were legislated with specific provisions to tackle this challenge of sedition. Though the earlier legislation hardly tackled the offence of sedition in India, more recent enactments have pigeonholed this criminal act, and relentless efforts are made by the stakeholders, such as the legislature, government, judicial courts, and social activists, to defame the same. In this blog, we shall keep a thorough conversation on the crime of sedition, the efforts by different stakeholders and the relevant standing legislation aiding the effort to tackle the same. Keep alert; when you blink, you may miss a phrase!

The Origin and Purpose of Sedition Laws

The offence of sedition laws was introduced in India by the British colonial government in the early years of 1870, relatively a decade after the Indian Penal Court was first enacted in 1860. Accordingly, Section 124A of this legislation defines sedition as any act or speech that ‘brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection’ toward the government established by law in India. The jurisprudence for this enactment was to suppress dissent and revolutionary activities against colonial rule and maintain the unhealthy functionalities of the British monarch against the native Indian citizenry. However, the same legal provision proved to be both contentious and significant then and today. It has time and again come under scrutiny for its impact on democratic principles, particularly freedom of speech and expression by the citizens. Meanwhile, quite a majority view sedition laws as essential for maintaining national security and public order; others see them as tools of oppression that stifle dissent and violate the constitutional rights of the people of India. The pioneers of these laws include Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Annie Besant, among others.

Major Legal Provisions in the Post-Independence era against the crime of sedition in India

In post-independence India, sedition formed part of the legal framework in the country and it was a contentious debate due to India’s new sovereign status and the dire demand of freedom by the people of the country. With the help of judicial interventions, concrete basements have been placed to tackle the crime of sedition in India, besides Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. For instance, the landmark judgement of Kedar Nath Singh vs. State of Bihar in 1962 attempted to redefine  sedition. The Supreme Court accordingly stated that the law on sedition can be applied only in circumstances characterised by incitement of violence and public disorder in the communities. Maintaining the freedom of the citizenry, the Court emphasised that merely criticising the government cannot be said to constitute the crime of sedition and if that is treated otherwise, it would become a tool to silence the masses, prohibiting them from communicating their grievances.

Challenges associated with Sedition Laws in India

1. Suppression of Public Dissent: The foremost criticism of sedition laws in India is their alleged misuse to target dissenters, activists, journalists, and political opponents from disagreeing with the government’s activities and decisions. People have argued that the vague and broad language of Section 124A allows it to be used as a dangerous weapon against individual citizens who attempt to challenge the government on merit.
2. High Number of Cases, Low Convictions: These laws have equally been challenged on the account of being utterly dormant. In recent years, statistical claims have shown that sedition cases have drastically risen yet the rate of convictions still remains unchanged. This has called into question whether or not these laws are disproportionately functional in the country.
3. The Chilling Effect on Freedom of Speech Due to the existence of this laws on Sedition, certain actions of the people of India have been unjustly categorised as against the government and cited as an attempt to cause public distorts and de-establish the sitting government. However, on several instances, these speeches with great fundamental constitutional backings have been aimed at providing accountability and as a tool to call for action to ensure social wellbeing in the communities across the country.
4. Global Comparisons: There is also a great deal of comparison between nations today about the laws on Sedition. For instance, large democracies such as the United Kingdom have accordingly abolished its sedition laws in 2009, which cited their incompatibility with modern democratic values. This has raised even louder questions as to India’s continuation of the laws on sedition, considering the abolition by the United Kingdom—India’s main source of the common law system.

Conclusion

Therefore, though the sedition laws have played a great deal of importance to the current status of India’s democracy, many have argued they are unfit for today’s social and political setups. In the earlier years, sedition laws were deeply rooted in colonial oppressions and malfunctions. Today, sedition laws appear increasingly out of place in modern-day democracy, such as in India. Their misuse to stifle dissent and suppress free speech attempts to undermine the very basic structures of the constitutional rights, eroding trusts in democratic institutions among the people of India. While the need for laws to address genuine threats to national security, curb separatist tendencies, and ensure legal safeguards is undeniable, there is equally a dire need to maintain the very basements of our constitutional principles and the core principles of our democracy, such as the freedom to speech and expression. Therefore, it is essential to balance the assessments of the need for modern-day social and political wellbeing while deciding the fate of sedition laws in the country. Where it proves no longer necessary, the stakeholders shall feel no shame to annihilate the same and turn to what works.

By Charles Anyama Kalisto