Free (the) speech: 475 sedition cases registered between 2014 and 2021

At least 475 cases of sedition have been recorded as being registered in India between 2014 and 2021. Assam accounted for 69 cases, or 14.5 per cent. This means one out of every six sedition cases registered in India between 2014 and 2021 came from Assam.

State-wise analysis

The most number of such cases were reported from Haryana (42 cases), followed by Jharkhand (40), Karnataka (38), Andhra Pradesh (32), and Jammu & Kashmir (29).

These six states accounted for 250 cases — more than half the number of total sedition cases recorded in the country — in eight years.

Nine other states and Union Territories (UTs) registered sedition cases in double digits in the last eight years — Manipur (28), Uttar Pradesh (27), Bihar (25), Kerala (25), Nagaland (17), Delhi (13), Himachal Pradesh (12), Rajasthan (12), and West Bengal (12).

Three states — Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana — reported eight sedition cases each in the 2014-21 period, while Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh registered six cases and Goa four.

Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Lakshadweep registered just one sedition case each.

Sikkim and Tripura recorded two sedition cases, and Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat registered three each.

States and UTs that did not register even one sedition case in that period were Meghalaya, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Puducherry.

Source: National Crime Records Bureau reports