A Delhi court has said the law of sedition cannot be invoked to quieten disquiet.

Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana made the observation while granting bail on Monday to Devi Lal Burdak and Swaroop Ram, arrested by Delhi police on charges of sedition for allegedly posting fake videos on Facebook during the farmers’ protest.

The court said the law of sedition was a powerful tool to maintain peace and order. “However, it cannot be invoked to quieten the disquiet under the pretence of muzzling the miscreants,” the judge said.

He noted that the law proscribes any act that can create disorder “by resort to violence” but that no call to violence was attributed to the two.

The police had said the men forwarded two separate videos, one from Jharkhand and another of a Delhi police officer briefing his force, with a tagline that suggested a rebellion in Delhi police. Opposing bail, the police had accused them of intent to spread disaffection against the State.