Adv. Prabhash Giri
Section 124 (A) of IPC: sedition
What is IPC Section 124A
Under Section 124 (A) of the IPC, people accused of harming the unity and integrity of the country are arrested.
What is sedition:
According to the definition of sedition in Section 124 (A) of the Indian Law Code (IPC)
- If a person writes or speaks anti-government material
- Supports such content,
- tries to degrade the constitution by insulting national symbols,
- If he expresses disgust or dissatisfaction with his written or oral words, or gestures, or directly or indirectly, he may face life imprisonment or a three-year sentence.
“Since when did you apply”
- There was no law on sedition till 1859. It was built in 1860 and then in 1870 it was included in the IPC. The sedition law was created by the British government and was adopted by the Indian Constitution after independence. This law, made in 1870, was first used by the British government against Balgangadhar Tilak.
- This law, made in 1870, was used by the British government to write an article titled ‘Young India’ against Mahatma Gandhi in the Weekly General. This article was written against the British government.
- Kedarnath Singh, a resident of Bihar, was lodged by the state government in a speech case in a sedition case in 1962, which was stayed by the High Court. A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court had also ordered the Kedarnath Singh case. The order stated, “Treasonous speeches and expressions can be punished only when they cause violence, dissatisfaction or social dissatisfaction.”
- In 2010 a case was filed under this case in which Binayak Sen was accused of spreading Naxalite ideology. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but Binayak Sen got bail from the Supreme Court on 16 April 2011.
- In 2012, cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested under this law for posting lewd and dirty pictures related to the Constitution on his site. This cartoon was created by him during the movement against corruption in Mumbai in 2011.
- In 2012, the Tamil Nadu government imposed sedition streams on 7,000 villagers protesting the Kudankulam nuclear plant.
- In 2015, Hardik Patel, seeking reservation for the Patidars in Gujarat before Hardik Patel, Kanhaiya Kumar, was arrested in a sedition case on behalf of the Gujarat Police. There is also a contradiction in the Constitution about the law of sedition , about which disputes have often arisen.
Actually, the constitution which has made treason a law, the same constitution declared freedom of expression as the fundamental right of the citizens of India.
Activists of human rights and social organizations have been opposing and criticizing this argument.
Human rights activists say that under the guise of a law related to sedition, the government attacks freedom of expression. And works to suppress anti-government forces
Internationally, this law was severely criticized and debated whether this British era law should find a place in a democratic country like India.