Sedition law being "misused" to fight dissent in India: Activists close ranks, file petition in Supreme Court

Kashmiri families at the Bangaluru event

By A Representative
Following sedition charge slapped on Amnesty India for organizing a debate on human rights violations in Kashmir in Karnataka, India's top activists have begun to close ranks to strongly oppose the sedition law, which they believe involves the misuse of section 124A of the Indian penal Code (IPC) against any form of dissent.
Taking into account what is considered as “persistent persecution of students, journalists and intellectuals involved in social activism”, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by top anti-nuclear activist, Dr SP Udayakumar, which argues that sedition charges are “framed with a view to instill fear and to scuttle dissent.”
Pointing out that the sedition law is being “misapplied” in “complete violation of the scope of sedition as laid down by constitution bench judgment of Supreme Court in Kedar nath v State of Bihar [1962 Supp. (2) S.C.R. 769]”, the petition argues that the issue is of “immediate relevance” in the backdrop of the charge being leveled on increasing number of instances.
The petition points out to how the sedition charge was misused against student leaders of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), including JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, by the Delhi police, which is directly under the central government, the petition cites several “more recent” sedition charge on Amnesty India.
Referring to a constitution bench judgment, the petition says, only those acts which involve incitement to violence or violence constitute a seditious act, adding, in the Kedarnath case, “the scope of sedition as a penal offence was laid down” by only for offences which could be qualified as “incitement to violence” or the “tendency or the intention to create public disorder”.
“Those actions which do not involve violence or tendency to create public disorder, such as organization of debates/discussions, drawing of cartoons, criticism of the government etc. do not constitute the offence of sedition”, the petition says.
The petition also seeks direction from the court to make it “compulsory” for the concerned authority to produce a reasoned order from the Director General of Police or the Commissioner of Police, as the case maybe, certifying that the 'seditious act' could lead to incitement of violence or had the tendency create public disorder.
Insisting that only after such certification should an FIR be filed or any arrest made, the petition wants that there should be “a review of all pending sedition cases and criminal complaints of sedition before a Judicial Magistrate.”
Meanwhile, Amnesty, responding to the allegations of sedition made in the context of the Kashmir event organized in Bengaluru on August 13, has said that the charge is “without substance”, adding, the whole purpose of the event was to highlight the voice of families which suffered from human rights violations.
Part of its “Broken Families” campaign, carried out for providing justice to the families which had suffered casualties during violence in the Kashmir aalley, Amnesty said, the event based on “a report published in July 2015 after thorough research documenting the hurdles to justice faced by the families.”
The Bengaluru police has filed a criminal case against Amnesty for organizing the event involving discussions with families from Kashmir, who were featured in a 2015 report, and had traveled to Bengaluru to narrate their personal stories of grief and loss.
A first information report (FIR) was filed on the basis of a complaint filed by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP),the students' wing of the BJP. The FIR mentions a number of offences including ‘sedition’, ‘unlawful assembly’, ‘rioting’ and ‘promoting enmity’.
“Merely organizing an event to defend constitutional values is now being branded ‘anti-India’ and criminalized,” said Aakar Patel, Executive director, Amnesty International India, adding, “The filing of a complaint against us now, and the registration of a case of sedition, shows a lack of belief in fundamental rights.”

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Search This Blog