The case against Section 124A

The statute has no place in a democracy

The Supreme Court’s notice to the Union government to file in three days its response to petitions challenging the validity of the sedition law under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) raises hope this law will finally be erased from the statute books. The law has been misused with rising frequency by the Centre and states and is at odds with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement underlining India’s “civilizational commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty” at an outreach session of the G7 in June last year. Mr Modi followed this up by signing an “Open Societies”