Hyderabad: Merely raising anti-establishment slogans would not attract the charge of sedition unless the spoken word or action is aimed at inciting a mob or crowd to resort to violence, legal experts said.
After the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Justice Ajit Kumar Sinha, former judge of the Jharkhand HC, opined that the act of sedition was such that it could lead to disintegration of the country or destabilise an elected government.
He said, “If it’s a simple protest, then he has been wrongly arrested. But, if the protest was with a view to break ing up the country, it would definitely be a crime.”
Senior criminal lawyer at the HC Pappu Nageswara Rao said, “Raising pro-Pakistan or pro-Afzal Guru slogans is only an act of hate speech and definitely does not attract the charge of sedition. “
He said “Pakistan is not a declared enemy. Our country’s relations with Pakistan are not very cordial. If we shout ‘America Zindabad‘ or ‘Russia Zindabad’ what offence does it attract? Are some citizens not shouting slogans in favour of men who actually took up arms against the government like in the case of Punjab terrorism or Assam and Naga insurgents and Maoists and terming them martyrs?”
He said shouting such slogans doubtlessly causes pain and agony to a few citizens, but there was no law to control or curtail such behaviour.
He said,“Unless a law is enacted curbing praise of a country declared as an enemy country, unless a law is enacted making it punishable to praise anyone who waged war against India, the victims of such acts will have to bear the brunt of it, if it is so.”
Several eminent lawyers including Mr Raju Ramachandran, K.T.S. Tulsi and Vikas Singh of SC, after the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, have said that the police would have to prove that the JNUSU president made an attempt to incite a mob against the government.
A trial court had struck down a sedition case against writers Arundhati Roy, Varavara Rao, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Shuddabrata Sengupta and others for their alleged anti-India speech at a seminar in 2010.
The court ruled that there must be an element of incitement to violence.
According to legal experts a case of sedition is made out when anyone gives a call to perform an action that is likely to obstruct or defy the government.
