Pakistan s sedition law has far outlived the colonisers It s time to repeal it once and for all voiceofvienna.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from voiceofvienna.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A colonial provision enacted to suppress the voice of the indigenous population cannot be seen as a reasonable restriction in a democratic republic which is duty-bound to protect the rights of its citizens.
Sedition laws sit at the crossroads of politics and society, and law and justice. The political nature of this “offence against the state” tests the limits of free speech a citizen can rightfully enjoy. India’s polity has changed since 1870, when Sedition was added as an offence under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to govern restive subjects of the British Crown. This stifling legislation, conceived as a colonial tool to incarcerate freedom fighters, continues to be quickly invoked by free India’s elected rulers against dissenting citizens, deeply damaging the country’s democratic fabric.<br/><br/> This law which chips away at the essence of republican democracy – the right to dissent – has a chequered journey in independent India starting from 1950, when courts upheld free speech. However, the First Amendment to the Constitution put a damper on such liberal judicial interventions. Since then, although judgments urged governments to exercise restr