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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | HC slams Maharashtra, stays police’s sedition circular -Swati Deshpande

HC slams Maharashtra, stays police’s sedition circular -Swati Deshpande

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published Published on Sep 23, 2015   modified Modified on Sep 23, 2015
-The Times of India

MUMBAI: "I hope this is not the beginning of things," said justice V M Kanade as a bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of a controversial Marathi circular issued by the BJP-led state government on pre-conditions to be followed by police while registering sedition cases. Justices Kanade and Shalini Phnasalkar Joshi perused the circular and said, "How can these kinds of circulars be issued? This implies that everybody in the opposition can be put behind bars."

An apparently chastened state government later said it would withdraw the old circular and submit the revised version of the Marathi circular to the court before making it public.

The HC was hearing petitions filed by a Pune lawyer and cartoonist Aseem Trivedi challenging the constitutional validity and legality of the circular issued on August 27 in Marathi. The court posted the matter for further hearing on October 20 and directed the state not to act on the circular in the meanwhile.

The state government had issued the circular on August 28, on the basis of guidelines submitted by the former advocate general and recorded by the HC in its March 2015 judgment while dropping a 2011 sedition charge against Trivedi for his cartoons to protest corruption. At the same time, the government had translated it into Marathi which raise eyebrows.

Additional chief secretary of the home department KP Bakshi said that there was an interpretation issue with the Marathi translation of the HC judgment and the government has corrected it. "There is no issue about the English circular but the translated version of the Marathi circular was interpreted as something else," he said.

Trivedi had borne the brunt of a hastily filed police FIR for a case of sedition against him in 2011 for his cartoons against corruption. A petition filed by an activist against his case led to the police and state withdrawing the charge against him and the HC passing an order that mere criticism of the government did not amount to sedition. The HC had also in its order recorded a statement of the advocate general that the state would issue guidelines to all police stations, to prevent misuse of the criminal section that attracts even life imprisonment. Eventually the guidelines were issued last month, but the language of the circular led to a stir and fear about possible gross abuse and a virtual clampdown on free speech. It contained a clause that would make any speech or visual representations against even a "politician" an act of sedition under Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code.

The state's lawyer said the HC had directed the issuance of the circular. He sought three weeks' time to file a reply and also said a final call on the circular would be taken soon and that the state was considering issuing a "fresh circular". The government is thinking of substituting the circular.

Trivedi's plea is that some clauses of the circular are "vague and contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court." Trivedi's counsel Mihir Desai urged the court to stay the circular. He said, "First of all, the HC has not directed the state to issue a circular, only recorded the state's submission. And secondly, the circular and what it says is contrary to what the SC has held about what amounts to sedition. This kind of circular can't be issued."

The judges also perused the earlier HC ruling and said, "The HC has only recorded what the AG said, not directed the state..."

One of the petitions challenging the circular was filed by a Pune advocate Narendra Sharma, who said the circular was "unreasonable and against the spirit of the Constitution."

The petitions in court said the circular, whose language in Marathi would open up a Pandora's box and give rise to false and frivolous cases, was violative of fundamental rights of citizens.

Trivedi's plea said any citizen criticizing a public servant or a politician would be treated as an accused in a sedition case. "The ambiguity in its wordings can be misused by the state against an individual citizen for fair criticism of politician or public personality and or against a fair criticism of their policies."

(With inputs from Sujit Mahamulkar)


The Times of India, 23 September, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/HC-slams-Maharashtra-stays-polices-sedition-circular/articleshow/49067241.cms


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