The Bombay high court on Friday came down heavily on the Mumbai police for booking cartoonist Aseem Trivedi for sedition without proper interpretation of the law. Division bench of justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.A. Sayyad, hearing a PIL filed by one advocate Sanskar Marathe, also expressed the need to have clear directions with respect to application of Section 124A IPC, sedition, in a criminal case.
The court, not wanting the police to act arbitrarily by applying such severe charges against anyone agitating in a democratic manner against the system, has asked the police to file a detailed affidavit by October 13.
“Police action was prima facie arbitrary,” observed the HC, adding, “As per a 1962 Supreme Court judgment, this section was only to be applied if there was a law and order situation or a threat of violence was eminent.”
According to the HC, if one refers the European court of human rights guidelines, whether democratic ways were applied for agitation or not need to be considered. If a democratic process was used to express feelings, then it cannot be considered sedition, the HC said.
The state government wanted the court to consider the matter as a writ petition and not as a PIL. On this the HC observed that sedition charges “cannot be used so recklessly”. “Putting sedition charges on a cartoonist was excessive,” the bench observed.
The HC, expressing the need for judiciary to give guidelines on in what cases sedition charge could be applied and in which matters they could not, so as to stop misuse of the provisions in future, observed that the cartoonist showed courage but many others may have to suffer in silence.