New Delhi: Supreme court today describing the British-era sedition law as “colonial”, questioned whether the law was “still necessary after 75 years of Independence”.
“Our concern is a misuse of the law and no accountability of the executive,” the Chief Justice told Attorney General Venugopal.
A three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice said it would examine the validity of the sedition law and asked the Centre to respond to a former army officer’s petition that says the law causes a “chilling effect” on speech and is an unreasonable restriction on free expression. The sperm court bench further said several petitions have challenged the sedition law and all will be heard together.
Following were the Supreme court’s observations on Sedition Law, Section 124A of the IPC.
“There is enormous misuse. The use of sedition is like giving a saw to the carpenter to cut a piece of wood and he uses it to cut the entire forest itself. That is the effect of this law,” the court said.
“If a police officer wants to fix anybody in a village for something, he can use Section 124 A… People are scared.”
“The dispute is it is a colonial law… the very same law was used by the British to silence Mahatma Gandhi and to suppress the freedom movement. Is the law still necessary in the statute book in our country after 75 years of Independence?”
“We are not blaming any state or government, but look at how Section 66A of the Information Technology Act is continuing to be used, how many unfortunate people have suffered and there is no accountability for this…”
“The sedition law is a colonial law. Do we still need the law in our country after 75 years of Independence,” Chief Justice NV Ramana questioned?
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