The Law Commission, while endorsing the penal provision for the offense of sedition, has said that scrapping of Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code relating to sedition may adversely affect the security and integrity of the country.
In fact, the Supreme Court had suspended Section 124-A for the purpose of preventing misuse, but the panel of the Law Commission, which has prepared the report, has stressed the need for this sedition provision and suggested that if the law officer is careful If we try to stop the misuse of this section, then there is every possibility that incidents of harassment from this section against innocent people, especially with the spirit of revenge, will decrease.
The truth is that this section has been misused many times by the police themselves to harass them. The courts have found that governments impose this section in retaliation by ordering the police. This section has been misused many times against journalists, people associated with social media and YouTubers. In 2020, this section was misused against the MLAs of Rajasthan who tried to destabilize Ashok Gehlot’s government under the leadership of the then Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot.
On the other hand, it becomes necessary to invoke this section against those found involved in Naxalite and terrorist activities. The question is if this section is struck down for fear of misuse against innocent people, then what provision will be used against those who actually committed the offense of sedition. When some civil society advocates to abolish this law by saying that this section was made by the British which was misused against the freedom fighters, so now this section should be repeated, they should be asked Not freedom fighters, but those who support separatism in the the name of freedom and take the lives of innocent people because of their ideological conviction, they are committing crimes of sedition even in independent India. This is the reason why this section should be used carefully but it would not be wise to completely replace it.
The bottom line is that it is better to abolish any law for fear of misuse, concrete provisions should be made to prevent the misuse of that law. There are many sections of the Indian Penal Code which were misused a lot. Section 302 of murder and Section 307 of attempt to murder are openly misused by the police of some states and later the accused are acquitted by the courts. This does not mean that sections 302 and 307 should be abolished. Special corrective efforts need to be made by the government, police and law officers to prevent misuse of the sections.
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