Written by Hritam Saha
Edited by Siddhant Sharma
I'll start with a discussion between a law student and an engineering student. They were discussing about authorities who lawfully can have weapons. Subsequently, at a point in time, they started talking about the Indian Police. The engineering student said that the police not only have weapons in the form of guns but they also have a 'weapon in the form of a law’ under which anybody can be booked for disapproving the might of the government. The law student agreed with him and said that the weaponry law is 124A of IPC.

Is the police reading explanations- 2 and 3 of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code?

There is a famous saying that 'your liberty to punch ends at that point on and from which my nose starts'.
The above-stated phrase has three entities— the first entity is liberty symbolized as the freedom of punching, and the second is the restriction symbolized as the nose and the third is the line that separate liberty and restrictions.
It is writ large from part 3 of the Constitution of India that only the freedoms, adumbrated under the shelter of article 19 of the same, are having express restrictions regarding each other. Henceforth, at the time of weaving the Constitution, our learned forefathers and foremothers, themselves, had envisaged that the Constitution shall grant liberties though with restrictions. However, the learned framers have not adjoined any restrictions to the other freedom-conferring articles of the constitution. Why they have not done so is a subject of another day but a hint is left that is the article- 19 bestows physically effectual freedom whereas the other articles of freedom represent the philosophical dogmas of the Constitution. E.g. Article 14 and 21. That it is worth mentioning that when the Constitution of India came into force on 26 January 1950 article 19(1)(a) of the same was not having the counter-draft of article 19(2) to 19(1)(a) and the corollary is the said freedom was immune to the might of the government. However, the Nehruvian’ government in the year 1951, by the effect of the first amendment, ended the immunising period of the said article.
One of such restrictions is section 124A of the Indian Penal code that the executive regime has used as a sword and shield against the freedom conferred by article 19(1)[ a, b, c] of the Constitution of India.

[124A. Sedition.—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.

Explanation 1.—The expression “disaffection” includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity.

Explanation 2.—Comments expressing disapprobation of the measures of the Government to obtain their alteration by lawful means, without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, do not constitute an offence under this section.

Explanation 3.—Comments expressing disapprobation of the administrative or other action of the Government without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, do not constitute an offence under this section.]
The buoying tussle between the interpretation of 'disaffection' and 'disapprobation' is a point of contention and to eradicate this contention our skullduggery police are not reading Explanations— 2 and 3 of 124A.
The word 'disapprobation' is not defined in Section 124A whereas the word disaffection is defined. Therefore, did the legislature have wanted to leave the formulation of the definition of disapprobation upon the executive, notwithstanding, the word being incorporated under the vindicating explanations (2 and 3) of section 124A? This question could have been answered by the late Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay but it is too late.
The learned courts have interpreted 'disapprobation' as mere disapproval and disagreement to the measures and administrative functions of the government but what the courts have not defined till now is that what could be the harmonic modes of demonstrating disapproval.
Article 19(1)(b) of the Constitution of India uses this expression that is 'to assemble peacefully and without arms'. Does the word peacefully mean remaining silent or being a speaker with zero volume? Or is it mean to speak without exiting anyone. It is, indescribable, even for the sociologists to lay down a uniform code of conduct in respect of which conducts will not excite anyone in anyone in any way whatsoever. A conduct that is acceptable in the west may not be so in the east. However, humanitarian grounds are uniform, hence keeping those grounds in mind, can aid the learned to draw up the Dos and Don'ts that must be adhered to while demonstrating disagreement.
There have been a total of 326 cases registered under the sedition law between 2014 and 2019 in India and out of these only 6 cases have seen the light of convictions. What does this record convey a lazy trial system of the Indian Judiciary or the police defining disapprobation as disaffection thereby paving way for subsequent acquittal? The answer can be well given by the police. However, it is palpable that at least a tincture of contortion is taking place at the disposal of the police.
That considering the circumstances that are taken to be a contributing factor, by the police, for holding an offence under section 124A, it is a reasonable surmise that the police are bounding and butting their reading within the precincts of 1st paragraph and explanation-1 of section 124-A.

Democracy is a device that beacons the participation of the people, however, the participation is not for solving problems for a lifetime but for resolving to solve problems whenever such arise.

Tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and so on so forth, neither the court nor the civil society can fully convert this half-reading to a full reading. However, a little effort, by the learned to read the full, can be the teacher, gradually, teaching how to read a text in entirety.

Views are personal

When there is a deadlock at the headlock of corona and politics....

[Continued].... the people of India have to resort to voting at the expense of their life; political ideologies incarnate into political idiosyncrasies incarcerating the idea of the 'Union of States'; a relay race of shifting responsibility without a finishing point takes place between the government of a State and the government of India and the arrival of many other alike beings take place.All when summed up makes the life and limbs of the common people susceptible to the ears and eyes of the COVID-19.History is a witness, which when called upon, has reiteratedly enunciated that war and crisis makes a government unipersonal. Such power then suffuses over every branch, for instance, Reporters Across Borders purported that 38 countries have hijacked freedom of the press.Many governments have enacted emergency laws to address the pandemic, like new powers of detention, closing non-essential businesses, limiting public gatherings and movement, monitoring the streets to ensure they remain inside.Some countries have also invoked emergency like Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova and Romania. These actions though made in good faith have inseparable repercussions, for instance in Philipines, people are violently detained, belaboured and even killed for being cold with the restrictive orders, and when the actions of the authorities were questioned they justified themselves by colouring their cause of actions with unintelligible crayons. Miniscule of Confrontations has also been witnessed between the armed forces and people in the United States, Greece and Germany.It is a watertight proposition that lockdown has sent the human rights in hibernation though such has been done with good intentions. Still, severing the accountability from the largest picture of lockdown was a cancerous dream that indeed took the form of reality.In India, the largest picture was the inexplicable ever walking hunger march of the migrant workers which perhaps would remain a never-ending march for their families. The government of a state has invested their burden to another state stating the workers are not domiciled in their state. But that is why they are called migrant workers, not just workers. In such circumstances, the centre had graced the situation with absolute silence even though they have conveyed ration to the states but had not pressed anything for the migrants. At that time the Supreme Court, in its wisdom, deemed fit to take a resolution of disappearing with the sunset and not to rise with the sun.Are not these instances exemplifying the uninterrupted dictation of the governments?During the election this year, a newspaper in its print considered voting as the 'dance of democracy'. But I think it was a curtain-raiser. The subsequent substantive of the story was the 'uninvited dance of life shedding'.Politics in simpler and unharmful terms are disagreements that are conciliated and reconciled by deliberations.But here exists palatable incommunicado between the people in power due to their political constipation. But their speeches at biggish stages were that incandescent that it called upon horde of people to throng in their sabhas.Later, it was understood that people were there to assuage their stomach emptiness, not to imbibe the rhetorics of ever germinating politicians, because the number of people who were present there in a party's sabha did not commensurate with the number of votes that the party has received.The pandemic had a huge impact upon the economy, resulting in the imbalance of an already imbalanced socio-economic structure of the society which has been the blue and black to those people whose stomach's appetite solely compliments their daily actions.Comparing the GDP havoc endured by the countries, to approximate one country's efficacy over another against this pandemic is unwanted because every country has been unavoidably compelled by the virus to receive its invitation of downfall in every aspect, and the attendance of the people of some countries to such invitation has been either more or less but not null.Yes, it is indisputable that unemployment, societal disjunction, hunger, domestic violence, depression, etc., all together have increased. But can anybody assert that these were never there before this pandemic? I think the answer would be a big NO.'Health is wealth.' When we say this, things like unemployment and poverty are very much present, thus, we don't have a vibrant economy and the corollary is 'no wealth'. Hence, the other name of 'health is wealth' is, "as there is no wealth there is no health".Some say that a vibrant health system would not have been a guarantee against this pandemic. Yes, indeed, it could not have been a guarantee but it could have been a warranty, that is assurance rather than the commitment, that is guarantee. But here, the government knows that a vibrant health system could not be a shield of guarantee without even trying to make it happen. The drops of Astrology and drops of science are both in positives. Therefore they repel each other.The game of touchable and untouchable, black and white, etc. have been widely familiar for human beings across the world. Like in India, the 'so-called upper castes' purport that they would be contaminated if they come into contact with the 'untouchables' and somewhat similar reasons are for the differences between the whites and blacks. Hence, its a game of illusory contagiousness. But the game is a bit different in the case of COVID-19. If an 'upper caste' person comes into contact with an 'untouchable', he would not get contaminated because in the light of science, there is no trace of contamination. But yeah, those people could get mentally contaminated as they claim to be. In contrast to such, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which spreads COVID-19) can spread to all humans. Yes, you've again read it correctly, HUMANS. It does not discriminates between touchables and untouchables or whites and blacks, and one more point, this contamination can take the lives of the people, whereas in the previous case, the mentally contaminated ones take the lives of those who had 'contaminated' them as a compensation for their illusory damages.And what politics does in such cases, it encashes such disaster to transform it into a never-ending one for the sake of meeting their political ends, where end means an extension of infinite hedonism with sheer impunity.But this time, politics has averted from the game which was unfolding against the healthcare personnels. Why? Because such a game would have inflicted everyone including politics. Therefore, politics obituaries for its administrators and not for those who have chosen politics to govern them.Let's talk about the elections. Were there no ways available to cherish democracy other than to conduct the elections in this pandemic? If no, then were there no ways left for the politics to witness people's throng without creating the opportunity for the people to reach out to politics physically? Was it needed to apprise people about their past and would be, via rallies?Many in the history of India had shed blood to earn freedom, we, the people of India have tenaciously deliberated to gift ourselves a written Constitution and democracy is a vital cog of it. As said that voting is a 'dance of democracy' and to actualize democracy, elections are conducted. "Had the framers of our constitution ever conceived the thought of witnessing such dance at the expense of people's life?"We are so determined to see the dance of democracy that we have forgotten to evoke the gorgeous dance of the celebrities. At least such would have impeded us to witness the buffoon dance of the politicians and perhaps could have protected lives, but yes, the latter can be witnessed free of cost and also with a toast of food. And why not? It is performed every five years.The multi-polarization of political beliefs at the expense of uniform goal in national interest and discrimination of religious beliefs have now been adjoined by the discrimination of the technological accessibility of people as there has been seen a sharp division among classes regarding the technological means.Has this pandemic compartmentalized human beings in every aspect? The answer seems to be still under construction.The deadlock at the headlock of corona and politics may completely end one day but for the time being, the relaxation of the deadlock is in progress at the effacement of the population.But the question that will remain to be discussed is, "What would happen after the clearance of the deadlock at the headlock of COVID-19 and politics". As of now, COVID-19 is in a headlock with politics and vice versa. But after the expungement of the pandemic, will the headlock by politics to the livelihood of people, would remain? Headlock by rich to the poor, employment to unemployment, vibrant medical structure to precarious medical structure, etc? The future would author and the past would readout.The gravitation of the earth pulls people down for the sake of stability. But the human structured rockets supersede this pull to expel itself from the earth to the space. We human beings are not rockets. Therefore no one is more and no one is less in respect of being stable. Therefore one may discriminate against an individual in every aspect and respect other than the means of stability. Because stability is the law of nature but not of humans.Views are personalWritten by Hritam Saha(Edited by Siddhant Sharma)

Is the police reading explanations- 2 and 3 of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code?

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