The Law Commission of India has recommended retention of the sedition law and enhancement of the minimum punishment to seven years in jail from the current three years, while proposing procedural safeguards to prevent abuse.

The commission has also recommended the addition of the words “with a tendency to incite violence or cause public disorder” to the sedition law. It has cited as reasons for backing the retention of the sedition law the “ever-proliferating” social media “radicalisation” against India, activities of Maoists and militancy in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Law Commission is a recommendatory body created by an act of Parliament to suggest amendments to laws. The suggestions are not binding upon the government.

The 81-page report submitted recently by the commission’s chairperson, Justice (Retd) Ritu Raj Awasthi, to Arjun Ram Meghwal, the minister of state (independent charge) of law and justice, became public on Friday.

The commission’s 279th report comes against the backdrop of the May 11, 2022, stay imposed by the Supreme Court on invoking the sedition law, following allegations of rampant misuse of the colonial-era legislation by parties in power against critics and political opponents.

The Law Commission said in its report: “The ever-proliferating role of social media in propagating radicalisation against India and bringing the Government into hatred, many a times at the initiation and facilitation by adversarial foreign powers, all the more requires such a provision to be present in the statute. Section 124A of the IPC has its utility in combating anti-national and secessionist elements as it seeks to protect the elected government from attempts to overthrow it through violent and illegal means.

“The continued existence of the government established by law is an essential condition for the security and stability of the State. In this context, it becomes imperative to retain Section 124A and ensure that all such subversive activities are nipped in their incipiency.”

Enhanced punishment

While the law now prescribes a minimum punishment of up to three years in jail, the commission has recommended that it be increased to seven years.

The current Section 124A of the lPC reads: “Sedition — whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in lndia shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.”

The law commission said: “In accordance with the aforesaid, we propose that Section 124A be amended as follows: Sedition —whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government, established by law in lndia with a tendency to incite violence or cause public disorder shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.”

Safeguards

As a safeguard to prevent misuse of the law, the commission has recommended that no FIR shall be registered in sedition complaints unless a preliminary inquiry is conducted by a police officer of the rank of inspector.

“The police officer... shall conduct a preliminary inquiry within seven days for the limited purpose of ascertaining as to whether a prima facie case is made out and some cogent evidence exists. The said police officer shall record the reasons for the same in writing and only thereafter, permission shall be granted...,” the report said.

“While the political class may be accused of misusing the sedition law, the root of the problem lies in the complicity of the police. Sometimes, in an overzeal to please the political masters, the police action in this regard becomes partisan and not as per the law,” the commission said.