Sedition cases decline but remain higher than 2015, 2016: An analysis

Conviction rate almost unchanged; charge sheet filed in less than 50% cases in most years

On May 11, the Supreme Court of India, in an interim order, put the 152-year-old sedition law in abe­y­ance, and asked the Centre and the states to ref­rain from registering fresh first information reports (FIRs) under the law while it is being reviewed. The court will hear the case further in July.

While the number of cases registered under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, or the sedition law, fell in 2020 and 2021, these were still higher than the number of such cases filed before 2016, a Business Standard analysis has found.

An analysis of data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows nearly 400 ca­s­es of sedition were registered over the last eight years (2014 to 2021). More than half of these — 236 — were filed between 2018 and 2020 (see chart 1).

While states registered a higher number of sedition cases, the number of convictions has remained almost unchanged. Between 2018 and 2020, of the 236 cases filed, only five ended in a conviction. Between 2018 and 2019, as the number of cases jumped, so did the number of acquittals. In 2018, 11 of the 70 cases filed saw acquittals. And in 2019, when 93 cases were filed, the number of acquittals nearly tripled, to 29.

According to a reply in the Rajya Sabha, in 2021, 43 cases were registered under sedition or the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or both. In 28 cases, no charge sheet was filed (see chart 2).

In fact, in only two of the eight years from 2014 to 2021, a charge sheet was filed in over 50 per cent of the cases registered. The ratio has been declining since 2018. In 2018, a charge sheet was filed in 54.3 per cent of the cases registered. The ratio fell to 41.9 per cent in 2019 and further to 31.5 per cent in 2020. In 2021, it slipped to 31.3 per cent (see chart 3).

Assam, which had not registered a single case of sedition until 2016, accounted for over a fifth of the total cases from 2017 to 2020. In 2018, Kar­na­taka had registered only two cases. Just a year later, in 2019, a fourth of the total sedition cases were from Karnataka alone.

According to a website called “A Decade of Darkness”, which collates data on sedition cases across India, more than 800 such cases have been filed against 13,000 Indians since 2010.