New Delhi: Recently, on May 11th, 2022, the Supreme Court put on hold Section 124A pertaining to sedition till the time the central government re-examines its provisions and takes a decision on it. All the pending cases under it are to be kept in abeyance and if any fresh case is registered, affected parties can approach the court for relief.
"Hundreds of people were imprisoned under this law," said Gonsalves. On being asked if 'staying' the section will actually have an impact, considering various other sections of IPC are usually imposed on people along with sedition, Gonsalves said that prosecution under other sections will continue but getting bail will be easier now.
In various cases like Kedarnath's judgment, Balwant Singh vs the State of Punjab, Vinod Dua vs UOI, etc, the top court had narrowed down the scope of sedition to prevent its misuse yet the section continued to be misused and journalists and activists were arrested often. Commenting on this, Gonsalves said that the judiciary had made a "mistake" in earlier cases by not completely striking down the section. "It should have completely set aside the section," said Gonsalves.
"As long as there is a statute in the book, the policeman will look into it and make arrests," said Gonsalves. Even this time, the senior counsel said that it would be better if the judiciary had decided the matter straight away instead of leaving it to the government because all the government wants to do is "timepass'.
He said that to prevent the misuse, the government will have to abolish it completely, and merely modifying provisions won't help. Nonetheless, Gonsalves said that it is a "strong temporary order" and the judiciary will decide if the government fails.
The Supreme Court last year had issued notice on a batch of pleas challenging sedition and had sought the Centre's response. The Union government after some delays responded by saying that it would re-examine the section as it is a colonial law and needs to be tuned with the present times. It had requested the judiciary to wait till it re-examines the matter. A Bench led by CJI NV Ramana allowed the Centre to re-examine but granted an interim stay on the section for the time being citing its misuse.
Also read:UN Human Rights Office hails Supreme Court order on sedition, calls for immediate release of all detained under the law
