Maharashtra Govt to Bombay HC: Circular on Sedition Law Withdrawn

While Opposition accused the current BJP government in the state for the rule, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis blamed the previous Congress-NCP government in the state for the circular.

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court that it has withdrawn the controversial circular issued on August 27 on sedition charges so that the law enforcing agencies do not misuse it.

A two-judge bench of the high court comprising justices V.M. Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi had on 22 September asked the government to not act on the circular.

The court guidelines, in contrast had said “words, signs or representations against politicians or public servants by themselves do not fall in this category unless the words/signs/representations show them as representative of the government”.

“The government has taken the right decision, but it defended the circular for a long time and the court had to intervene”.

The circular, said experts, had not only expanded the earlier definition of sedition, but also given unbridled discretionary powers for interpretation to the police-which is not permitted in a democracy and is clearly unconstitutional and against Article 14 of the Constitution.

The circular was issued after the court asked for guidelines on sedition following Aseem Trived’s arrest following a series on cartoons that mocked the government.

The state came out with a circular on August 27 laying down conditions to be observed while invoking sedition charge.

It was challenged by Trivedi and others. The circular that had sparked off the row had laid down certain conditions required to be considered for initiating action against a person under Section 124-A of Indian Penal Code, which deals with sedition.

However, on a PIL, the Bombay high court had granted him bail.

Advocate General Srihari Aney made the statement during the hearing of two petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the circular. Later, the state government, on the advice of the then advocate general, Darius Khambata, had dropped the sedition charge, though the case under other provisions of the IPC continued against him.