It’s high time to do away with sedition law, says Supreme Court ex-judge Nariman

Jan. 19: Former Supreme Court Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman recently said that young persons, students, stand-up comedians, and alike are being booked for freely criticizing the government of the day under sedition laws which are really colonial in nature and have no place under the Indian Constitution. Justice Nariman was delivering a keynote address on “Constitutional Underpinnings of the Rule of Law”at the Inauguration of D.M. Harish School of Law, Mumbai on January 14.

Justice Nariman added, we find great reluctance among the authorities to book people who are giving hate speeches actually calling for a genocide of entire people. Speaking at the lack of minimum punishment for the offence of hate speech, Justice Nariman said: “Unfortunately, in practice, though a person can be given up to three years of imprisonment, this never really happens because no minimum sentence is prescribed. If we really want to strengthen rule of law as contained in our constitution, I would suggest strongly that Parliament amend these laws to provide minimum sentences so that it creates deterrence for others who make hate speech”.

After a 7-year term, Justice Nariman retired in August 2021 as judge of the Supreme Court. Among his key verdicts is the 2015 landmark decision Shreya Singhal versus Union of India, in which the court struck down Section 66A of Information Technology Act, holding that the provision was arbitrary and unconstitutional. The provision was routinely used to book individuals for comments made on social media.