PremiumTerming it "colonial", the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the central government if India still needs the sedition law.
"The sedition law is a colonial law. Do we still need the law in our country after 75 years of Independence," asked an SC bench headed by Chief justice N V Ramana.
The apex court was hearing a plea by former army officer Major-General S G Vombatkere (Retd) who challenged the Constitutional validity of section 124 A (sedition) of the IPC on grounds that it causes a "chilling effect" on speech.
"Your government has repealed many stale laws, I do not know why the government is not looking into repealing Section 124A (which deals with the offence of sedition) of the IPC?" CJI Ramana asked.
The sedition law was meant to suppress the freedom movement and was used by the Britishers, the court noted.
"It was meant to suppress the freedom movement and the same law was used by the British against Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak," it said.
The SC said that it will examine the validity of the sedition law and asked the Centre to respond to the army officer's plea. It stated that several petitions have challenged the legislation and all of them will be heard together.
It also called the law "a serious threat" to the functioning of institutions.
"The situation on the ground is grave. If one party does not like what the other is saying, Section 124A is used. It is a serious threat to the functioning of individuals and parties," said Chief Justice Ramana.
"There is the enormous power of misuse. We can compare it to the carpenter, instead of cutting wood, cutting the forest itself. That is the effect of this law," he added.
Taking the example of Section 66A, which was struck down by the court but people were arrested, the bench said: "There is a misuse of these provisions, but there is no accountability."
Some guidelines may be laid down to curb misuse of sedition law, Attorney General K K Venugopal said while defending the validity of the provision.
The top court further told Attorney General that the conviction rate under Section 124A is very low.
"Take the 66A IT Act, thousands of cases were registered even after being struck down. If any police wants to fix somebody, it can invoke Section 124A also. Everybody is a little scared when this section is invoked. These are all issues that need to be looked into. Our concern is the misuse of the law and no accountability of the executive," said the Chief Justice.
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