Facing flack for a circular which left the field open for the police to register sedition charge against critics of the government, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it had withdrawn the controversial circular.
Advocate-General Shrihari Aney informed this to a Division Bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi.
The August 27 circular said that criticism of a politician or a public servant, in the form of words, signs or representations, could attract the charge of sedition under Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code.
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In light of the government’s statement, the court disposed of petitions challenging the circular. “Since the government informs us that the circular has been withdrawn, nothing survives in the petition and they are disposed of,” the Bench noted.
Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, who was arrested in 2012 under the sedition charge for his political cartoons and advocate Narendra Sharma had sought to quash the circular on the ground that it violated the constitutional rights of people and was liable to be misused.
‘A big step’ADVERTISEMENT
“The government has taken the right decision, but it defended the circular for a long time and the court had to intervene. The circular made it easy for the authorities to invoke sedition. At a time when the political climate is restricting, this comes as a big step on the part of the government. The government has had to listen to the people,” Mr. Trivedi told The Hindu from Delhi.
In 2012, he was jailed for five days for his cartoons posted on the ‘India Against Corruption’ website. Having received a lot of support from the people, he called for a comprehensive debate on the Section itself.
“There has to be a debate on whether you need sedition at all and what should be the process of applying the law,” Mr. Trivedi said.
Welcoming the government’s move, his lawyer Mihir Desai said, “Freedom of speech has been restored.”
Despite the political consequences of the move, it was Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ decision to roll back the circular that showed the State government in a poor light, the Advocate-General told The Hindu .
After taking legal opinion and consulting bureaucrats, Mr. Fadnavis took the decision five days ago. A resolution to withdraw the circular was subsequently issued on Monday.
“The original legal position on sedition as spelt out in IPC remains the same. The instructions in the circular were tantamount to curbing the right of the people to criticise the government. The Chief Minister viewed the circular with concern and took the decision to recall it. He said he was not going to support it if it was an infringement of the citizens’ freedoms,” Mr. Aney said.