SHRI RAMSWAROOP MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY

2020-2021

The constitution of India

(BLA4005)
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my

faculty Dr. Shushil Kumar Singh, who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful project.

Who also helped me in completing my project. I came to know

about so many new things I am really thankful to him.
 
Secondly I would also like to thanks my parents and friends who
helped me a lot in finalizing this project within the limited time
frame.
 
 The Law of Sedition in India & Right to Freedom of
Speech and Expression

Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code

 
Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs,
or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or
attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or
attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government
established by law in India, shall be punished with
imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or
with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to
which fine may be added, or with fine.
 Lokmanya Tilak’s first trial for Sedition

• Tilak’s first trial for sedition had its origin in the famine
of 1896.
• Bubonic plague struck Pune in 1897.
• Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
• Walter Charles Rand was killed.
• Dinshaw Davar.
• The trial before Justice Arthur Strachey was a farce.
 Lokmanya Tilak’s second trial for Sedition

•The partition of Bengal and the killing of two English

women by a bomb hurled by Khudiram Bose led to large-
scale repression.
•Tilak’s residence in Pune was searched, but nothing was
found except a card on which Tilak had written the
names of two books on explosives.
 Mahatma Gandhi’s trial for Sedition

•“Of what value is it to insist on non-violence, if incessantly you preach disaffection

towards the Government and hold it up as a treacherous Government, and if you
openly and deliberately seek to instigate others to overthrow it?’’
•“I had either to submit to a system which I considered had done irreparable harm to
my country, or incur the risk of the mad fury of my people bursting forth, when they
understood the truth from my lips. I know that my people have sometimes gone mad. I
am deeply sorry for it, and I am, therefore, here to submit not to a light penalty but to
the highest penalty"
•“non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is co-operation with good.“
•Judge Broomsfield.
Freedom of speech and expression
 Romesh Thapar v State of Madras (1950)

• Cross Roads: pro-communist weekly published from

Bombay.

• First constitutional amendment (1951)

– Punjab High Court

– Allahabad High Court
 The Superintendent, Central Prison, Fatehgarh vs Dr. Ram Manohar
Lohia (1960)

• United Provinces Special Powers Act of 1932:

criminalised instigating people against paying
taxes or other liabilities.
• The Supreme Court held that only a proximate
connection or nexus with public order, but not
one far-fetched, hypothetical or problematical
or too remote in the chain of its relation with
the public order could be upheld under Article
19(2).
 Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar (1962)

• Sedition law was upheld.

 Balwant Singh v State Of Punjab (1995)
 
 
•It does not appear to us that the police should have attached much
significance to the casual slogans raised… a couple of times and read
too much into them. The prosecution has admitted that no disturbance,
whatsoever, was caused by the raising of the slogans… and that in spite
of the fact that the appellants raised the slogans a couple of times, the
people, in general, were unaffected and carried on with their normal
activities.

 
•The casual raising of the slogans, once or twice by two individuals
alone cannot be said to be aimed at exciting or attempt to excite
hatred or disaffection towards the Government.
 Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015)

• The distinction between “advocacy” and

“incitement” is grounded in the idea of
proximity, or imminence.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

To make this project I have taken source from the following

books:-
 
Law of Crime- Author S.N. Mishra
Indian Penal Code
Constitutional Law of India – Dr. J.N Pandey
The Constitution of India 

I have taken source from internet too, and taken help of our
Law of Constitution teacher Dr. Shushil Kumar Singh.
SUBMITTED BY: - SUBMITTED TO: -
 
Sanjana Mishra Dr. Shushil Kumar Singh
BBA-LL.B(H) 4TH Semester
202010301120701
THANK YOU