Sedition Law: A Government Tool For Arbitrary Power

Apurva Kandpal, OP Jindal Global University

ABSTRACT

In a democratic state like India, expressing any form of enmity, contempt, hatred, or disloyalty towards the government is restricted by the law of the country. The core of any democratic nation is formed out of the freedom and the rights the State gives to its citizens. When a colonial law like sedition is prevalent in a country like India, it is bound to be used to promote anti- democratic or to put it simply, authoritarian elements in the country. Throughout the years post-independence, the interpretation of the law of sedition and the reasonable restrictions have been done by several judgements as mentioned in this article. In the year 1962, the law’s constitutional validity was finally upheld and not surprisingly, the years that followed have seen a huge rise in sedition cases. The majority of these cases are filed to suppress the rights of the people even when the restriction was not reasonable enough to constitute seditious. With the law of sedition being put on temporary hold by the apex court of India, it is now up to the government to scrap the law. The recent news about the introduction of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023 in Lok Sabha, which aims to completely repeal the law of sedition, brings some form of hope.