JOIN USOnly 1 of 30 sedition cases ended in conviction last year; Karnataka tops list
Police across the country are rushing to file more sedition cases -- 2019 witnessed a 25% jump with Karnataka topping the list -- but the investigators could manage to get a conviction in just one out of the 30 cases whose trials were completed last year.
Two people were sent to jail in the lone case that ended in conviction last year, while 29 people in as many cases were let off as the charges did not stand in a court of law.
The figures for five years tell the story: 283 cases of sedition were filed between 2015 and 2019, 56 cases went to trial and at least 55 were people acquitted in 51 cases. Only nine people in five cases were sentenced to jail term during this period.
In 2019 alone, trial was completed while in 2018 it was 13, six in 2017, three in 2016 and four in 2015. There was no conviction in 2015 while there was one each in the next two years and two in 2018.
Last year also recorded the lowest conviction rate at 3.33% in the past four years while it was 15.40% in 2018, 16.70% in 2017 and 33.30% in 2016.
In 2014, when the NCRB started providing data on offences against the state in its Crime in India report, there were 47 cases of sedition in which 58 people were arrested.
Karnataka witnessed a sharp jump in registration of cases under the "draconian" provisions of sedition -- from two in 2018 to 22 last year -- as the country-wide numbers rose by around 25% to 93.
According to the Crime in India 2019 report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Assam with 17 cases of sedition, Jammu and Kashmir (11) and Uttar Pradesh (10) followed Karnataka. In 2018 when 70 cases were registered, Jharkhand topped the list with 18 cases followed by Bihar (17) and Jammu and Kashmir (12).
Altogether 229 cases of sedition, including those carried over from previous years, were investigated by police across the country, while police could conclude investigations only in 70 cases, leaving a pendency of 69.43%.
In courts, 116 sedition cases went for trial while only 30 saw completion leaving a pendency of 74.1% at the end of last year. Among those sedition cases filed last year, only 40 were sent for trial. The courts reported 89.7% pendency in sedition cases in 2017 as against 85.6% in 2018.
Activists have been demanding the repealing of Section 124(A) of the Indian Penal Code that deals with sedition but the government has made it clear in Parliament repeatedly that it is not taking any steps to repeal the law at present. It says the provision is needed to "effectively combat anti-national, secessionist and terrorist" elements.
"There is no proposal to scrap the provision under the IPC dealing with the offence of sedition. There is a need to retain the provision to effectively combat anti-national, secessionist and terrorist elements," the Ministry of Home Affairs told Parliament last year.
In March 2016 in Rajya Sabha, the Narendra Modi government had admitted that the sedition law was "very wide" while acknowledging the need for "some amendments". Then Home Minister Rajnath Singh had agreed to a suggestion by then JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav for consulting all parties on the scrapping of the issue but he wanted all of them to wait till the Law Commission submits its recommendations.