Sedition by any other name sounds equally draconian in its intent and scope of application. Though union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed in Parliament recently while introducing three bills replacing the Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act, that the sedition law would be removed, a closer look at the proposed legislation reveals that the colonial-era provision is, in fact, making its way back with a new name and even harsher punishment. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which will replace the IPC, proposes to have a provision that punishes “acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India” with life imprisonment or imprisonment up to seven years and a fine.
The offence of sedition has been retained under the draft law with a new nomenclature and a more expansive definition of what will constitute “acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India,” even as it removes the words “disaffection towards the government established by law in India” from the old Section 124 A of the IPC. It is incongruous for a liberal and free democratic country to have a sedition law in any form and nomenclature that fights its own citizens. The Centre has claimed that the replacement of the old laws is part of an overhaul of the criminal justice system, two decades after the Justice VS Malimath Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System submitted its report to the home ministry. However, the government should tread cautiously while redrafting the substantive criminal law.