Law commission recommends retaining sedition as offence in criminal law

Law Commission

The law commission of India, in its report from April 2023 has recommended that the provisions pertaining to sedition in Indian Penal Code, 1860 be retained.

According to the report,  Section 124A of IPC, which makes sedition a punishable offence has its utility in combating anti-national and secessionist elements. It seeks to protect the elected government from attempts to overthrow it through violent and illegal means.  The report notes "The continued existence of the government established by law is an essential condition for the security and stability of the State. In this context, it becomes imperative to retain Section l24A and ensure that all such subversive activities are nipped in their incipiency."

The report further states that Supreme Court in 1962 held that sedition is a reasonable restriction on freedom of speech contemplated under Article 19(2) of the constitution of India. According to the report, special laws and anti-terror legislations dealing with national security contain provisions relating to punishing the commission of offences targeted towards the State. However, sedition seeks to prevent the violent, illegal, and unconstitutional overthrow of a democratically elected government. Thus the report says that in the absence of the provision relating to sedition,  any expression that incites violence against the Government would be punishable under anti-terror law, which contains much more stringent provisions.

Arguing against sedition being called a colonial legacy, the commission has said people are at liberty to indulge in healthy and constructive criticism of their government in the current democratic setup as sedition seeks to penalise only the pernicious tendency to incite violence or cause public disorder in the guise of exercising the right to freedom of speech and expression.

The report further noted that sedition cannot be struck down in India merely because it has been struck down in some other jurisdictions as each of the countries has its own history, geography, population, diversity, and laws which are not comparable to Indian circumstances.

The commission has proposed that the section be amended to add the words 'tendency to incite violence or cause public disorder'. Furthermore, the report also recommends that the punishment for committing a seditious act  be increased from  life imprisonment or imprisonment upto 3 years to life imprisonment or imprisonment upto 7 years

On May 1,  the government told the Supreme Court that the consultations on re-examining the colonial-era sedition law were in an advanced stage and requested the hearing of cases challenging sedition be put off till the process was completed.

The hearing was adjourned to August 2023 after Attorney General of India R Venkatramani said the government would intimate the court on the outcome of the consultation before it reaches Parliament.

The apex court in May 2022 put the law on hold and ordered the Centre and states not to register any sedition case under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which, it said, was not in tune with the social milieu. It permitted reconsideration of the provision.

All pending trials, appeals and proceedings with respect to the charge framed under Section 124A were to be kept in abeyance. Adjudication, if any, could proceed if courts were convinced that no prejudice would be caused to the accused, the court had said.