Sedition law is given under section 124A of the IPC. The section defines sedition and makes every speech or expression that brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt towards the government established by law. It is a cognisable offence.
It was enacted during colonial times and Maculay brought this act. Similarly freedom of speech is guaranteed as Fundamental right under article 19 of the constitution.
It is often under debate because Centre and the States have invoked the section against activists, detractors, writers and cartoonists seeking to silence political dissent by accusing dissenters of promoting disaffection.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 35 cases of sedition were reported in 2016. Many of these cases did not involve violence or incitement to violence.
The sedition law came into focus in 2016 after the JNU row in which three students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University were arrested for allegedly raising anti-national slogans. Critics of sedition law have even demanding to scrap of the law by calling it a “draconian law”.
It is argued that along with
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