Sedition
law can be retained but with safeguards: Law Commission
Q. Context/Why is it in news:
· The 22nd Law Commission report recommends retaining Section
124A of the IPC, dealing with sedition, but proposes amendments and procedural
safeguards to prevent its misuse.
· Section 124A of the IPC is not in operation since May 2022 when the
Supreme Court bench, headed by then Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, stayed
the penal provision after the government agreed to review the law.
Q. Recommendations of the Law Commission
· The report recommended adding a procedural safeguard as a proviso to
Section 124A to state that no FIR shall be registered for sedition “unless a
police officer, not below the rank of Inspector, conducts a preliminary inquiry
and on the basis of the report made by the said police officer the Central
Government or the State Government, as the case may be, grants permission for
registering a First Information Report”.
· The commission said sedition being a “colonial legacy” is not a valid
ground for its repeal but in view of the misuse of Section 124A, the Centre
issue model guidelines to curb any misuse.
· The Law Commission said the existence of laws such as Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the National Security Act (NSA) does not
by implication cover all elements of the offence envisaged under Section 124A
of the IPC.
· The Commission, in its 279th report,
recommended amending Section 124A to qualify that the law penalise only
those “with a tendency to incite violence or cause public disorder,” and
proposed enhancing the jail term up to
seven years or life imprisonment. The offence currently carries a jail term
up to three years or life imprisonment.
· The report also quoted National Security Advisor AjitDoval’s 2021 speech
to IPS officers that “civil society can be subverted, divided and manipulated
to hurt the interest of the nation” to justify the need to retain the sedition
law.
