Sedition: Prince Closing Up on Kingship

Abstract

In May 2022, the Hon'ble Apex Court recently ordered that the colonial-era sedition law under Sec. 124A of the Indian Penal Code should be kept in abeyance until the Centre has reconsidered it. In this context, it becomes pertinent to submit that the history of the law relating to sedition in India is very tainted. The law that was once used to prosecute some of our greatest freedom fighters still exists today in our statute book. In free India, when some of the High Courts had started declaring the law's unconstitutionality, it was finally the turn of our Apex Court to show up and uphold its constitutionality. The survival of this provision in free India in the paradigm of parameters set out in Part III of the Constitution is a fascinating and problematic story. This research work traces the origin of Sedition Law in the Indian Penal Code and also elaborates upon its survival in the post–constitutional regime. There has been a drastic increase in Sedition cases recently, and suppressing dissent and discourse during Covid-19 has reminded us of the misuse of this law against one of our greatest freedom fighters, viz. Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Is it a situation where the saw given to the carpenter to cut a piece of wood has been used to clear the entire forest? In light of the Apex Court's stand that it is high time we have to decide the limits of sedition, this research paper would be a needful inquiry into the same.