IPC to Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023: 'Subversive activities’ replaces ‘sedition’ | Key changes
Article 377, criminalising of indigenous communities, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), several bills and laws, and Supreme Court verdicts later, changes have been enforced. The latest in this list are three bills that the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 that have been introduced by Amit Shah in Lok Sabha. Among them was the much debated- Sedition Act.
The sedition act pertains to criminals offences which ‘endanger sovereignty unity and integrity of India’. Amit Shah in Lok Sabha mentioned that the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 will repeal the offence of sedition under Section 124A. This section will be replaced with Section 150 in the new bill.
The sedition law was drafted by Thomas Macaulay in 1837 and was added to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 1870 by James Stephen as Section 124A. According to Section 124A, the sedition law states that, “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 shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added." This means that if any citizen of Indian sub-continent uses their words, whether that is written or verbal, or by visible representation that is through posters, movies, images etc attempts to incite hatred for India will be punished under the sedition law. In present scenario, the Sedition law is invoked as a crime under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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