In a significant judgment on Tuesday, Delhi Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana granted bail to climate activist Disha Ravi on account of “scanty and sketchy evidence” against her, days after she was arrested from Bengaluru for allegedly editing a social media document, or toolkit, about the ongoing farmer protest against three farm laws. In his 18-page judgment the Dharmender Rana pertinently held that “citizens cannot be put behind bars simply because they disagree with the government.” In his order, the judge said the law of sedition is a powerful tool that cannot be invoked to quieten the disquiet under the pretence of muzzling the miscreants. The arrest and bail of 21-year-old climate activist on wrongly applied sedition charges and doubts about pre-trial violations has again spotlighted police misuse of India’s 151-year-old sedition law under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. An offence of sedition, which is no longer on the statutes of most democracies, is said to be committed if any speech, performance or publication has an effect of creating disloyalty or hatred against the Indian government. This was, however, watered down in 1962 by the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath Singh. The judgement held that though the provision of sedition was constitutional, it cannot be invoked unless the alleged seditious act incited or had the tendency to incite violence or public disorder. On conspiracy, the court noted that it cannot be proved merely on the basis of inferences but those inferences have to be backed by evidence. On sedition, citing Kedar Nath case (1962), the judge underlined there must be either actual violence or the incitement to violence associated with the words. The court went a step ahead to rebut the state’s claims of Disha being part of a “global conspiracy” in recognising that the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression “includes the right to seek a global audience” and that “there are no geographical barriers on communication” as long as it’s “under the four corners of law.” Interestingly, a group of former judges and top police officers, including CBI ex-chief Nageswara Rao, have written to President Ram Nath Kovind on the Disha Ravi arrest, saying it was surprising that her age was being highlighted to prove innocence. They argued that age is immaterial and “what matters is a series of actions that are naturally anti-national.”It may be noted that of 10,938 people accused of sedition over the last decade, 65% found themselves implicated after May 2014, when the Modi government came to power, with the number of cases rising 28% every year since 2014. This trend was most visible after nationwide protests erupted protesting the government’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December 2019. Across the country, police authorities booked 3,754 individuals and filed 25 sedition cases, of which 96 were identified and the rest were “unidentified”. Of the 25 cases, 22 were in BJP-ruled states. Some have liked intolerance to another emergency, which even former deputy prime minister and BJP founder L.K.Advani had noted on June 18,2015. Emergency needed a formal legal declaration. Capturing democracy does not. The apparatus being seized is democracy and the means being deployed for this capture are also democratic.In such times, India needs Judges like Dharmender Rana, to remind citizens that the spirit of democracy cannot be cowed down.
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