TOPIC: GS 2 Separation of Powers between various organs Dispute Redressal Mechanisms and Institutions.
Media and sedition
What is the news?
- It is recognised that strident criticism of government will not amount to an attempt to excited is affection and disloyalty towards government.
- The colonial view that an excessive attack on an mandatory ruler should be met with fierce prosecution for sedition prevails among many in power of current situation.
- In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court has quashed a criminal case registered in Himachal Pradesh against journalist Vinod Dua
- It invoking the narroweddown meaning of an offence under Section 124A of the IPC
- The provision for sedition, set out in Kedar Nath Singh (1962).
Supreme Court Judgment
The Court has ruled is entitled to the protection of that judgment “comments, however strongly worded, expressing disapprobation of actions of the Government, without exciting those feeling which generate the inclination to cause public disorder by acts of violence, would not be penal”.
Colonial Rule Definition
- The law on sedition has come a long way from the formulation of Britishera judges Comer Petheram and Arthur Strachey
- It said “feelings of disaffection” towards the government connote “absence of affection hatred, enmity, dislike,hostility and every form of ill will towards the government”
- The more rational reading that only a pernicious tendency to create public disorder would be an offence.
It appears that every generation needs a judicial iteration of this principle, and that is because of two reasons:
- Section 124A remains on the statute book
- Powerful political figures and their minions are unable to take criticism in their stride.
Reasons during colonial administration
- Enacted to put down journalistic criticism of the colonial administration from an increasingly vocal press
- Section 124A is essentially a provision which seeks to protect the government’s institutional vanity
- It also disapprobation using the interests of public order and security of the state as a fig leaf.
- It has often been criticized for being vague and “overbroad”.
- Its use of terms such as “bringing (government) into hatred or contempt” and “disloyalty and all feelings of enmity” continues to help the police to invoke it
Loopholes in the Law
- There is either strong criticism or critical depiction of unresponsive or insensitive rulers.
- The explanation that disapproval of government actions or measures with a view to altering them by lawful means will not amount to an offence is not enough to restrain the authorities from prosecution.
Way Forward
The mischief lies in the latitude given to the police by an insecure political leadership to come down on the government’s adversaries.
It is unfortunate that the Bench did not go into the aspect of political motivation behind the police registering FIRs without checking if the required ingredient of incitement to violence is present.
The Court’s verdict brightens the hope that the section’s validity will be reexamined. For now, it is a blow for free speech and media freedom.
Mains Question
The Supreme Court’s rulings on cases of sedition give hope the law will be reexamined . Explain
PRELIMS PUNCHERS
- Air-independent propulsion (AIP)
It is any marine propulsion technology that allows a non-nuclear submarine to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen (by surfacing or using a snorkel). AIP can augment or replace the diesel-electric propulsion system of non-nuclear vessels.
Modern non-nuclear submarines are potentially stealthier than nuclear submarines; a nuclear ship’s reactor must constantly pump coolant generating some amount of detectable noise. Non-nuclear submarines running on battery power or AIP, on the other hand, can be virtually silent. While nuclear-powered designs still dominate in submergence times and deep-ocean performance, small, high-tech non-nuclear attack submarines are highly effective in coastal operations and pose a significant threat to less-stealthy and less-maneuverable nuclear submarines
- Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC)
It is a state of matter also called the fifth state of matter which is typically formed when a gas of bosons at low densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero . Under such conditions, a large fraction of bosons occupy the lowest quantum state, at which point microscopic quantum mechanical phenomena, particularly wave function interference, become apparent macroscopically. A BEC is formed by cooling a gas of extremely low density about one-hundred-thousand the density of normal air to ultra-low temperatures.
This state was first predicted, generally, in 1924–1925 by Albert Einstein following and crediting a pioneering paper by Satyendra Nath Bose on the new field now known as quantum statistics
- Defence Acquisition Council
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), under the Defence Minister is constituted for overall guidance of the defence procurement planning process. It is the highest decision-making body in the Defence Ministry for deciding on new policies and capital acquisitions for the three services Army, Navy and Air Force and the Indian Coast Guard.
The objective of the Defence Acquisition Council is to ensure expeditious procurement of the approved requirements of the Armed Forces in terms of capabilities sought, and time frame prescribed, by optimally utilizing the allocated budgetary resources. It was formed, after the Group of Ministers recommendations on ‘Reforming the National Security System’, in 2001, post Kargil War (1999).
- Raimona National Park
Spread over in Kokrajhar district, Assam straddles the northern part of the notified Ripu reserve forest, which forms the westernmost buffer to the Manas Tiger Reserve. It also shares contiguous forest patches with Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and Jigme Singye Wangchuk National Park in Bhutan creating a transboundary conservation landscape of more than 2,400sqkm.
Secured transboundary ecological landscape will help ensure long-term conservation of endemic species such as the golden langur the mascot of BTC and endangered species like the Asian elephant, royal Bengal tiger and varied other flora and faunal species it supports. Kaziranga National Park, Manas National Park, Nameri National Park, Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Orang National Park are the five other existing national parks in the state.
PRELIMS PUNCHERS
- Consider the following statement with reference to Air-independent propulsion
- It is any land based propulsion technology that allows a non-nuclear submarine to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen
- It can augment or replace the diesel-electric propulsion system of non-nuclear vessels
Select the correct statement using code given below.
(a). 1only (b) 2 only
(c). Both of them (d). None of the above
Answer : B
It is any marine propulsion technology that allows a non-nuclear submarine to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen (by surfacing or using a snorkel). AIP can augment or replace the diesel-electric propulsion system of non-nuclear vessels.
Modern non-nuclear submarines are potentially stealthier than nuclear submarines; a nuclear ship’s reactor must constantly pump coolant generating some amount of detectable noise. Non-nuclear submarines running on battery power or AIP, on the other hand, can be virtually silent. While nuclear-powered designs still dominate in submergence times and deep-ocean performance, small, high-tech non-nuclear attack submarines are highly effective in coastal operations and pose a significant threat to less-stealthy and less-maneuverable nuclear submarines
- Raimona National Park is located in which of the following state ?
- Assam
- Nagaland
- Tripura
- Sikkim
Answer : A
Spread over in Kokrajhar district, Assam straddles the northern part of the notified Ripu reserve forest, which forms the westernmost buffer to the Manas Tiger Reserve. It also shares contiguous forest patches with Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and Jigme Singye Wangchuk National Park in Bhutan creating a transboundary conservation landscape of more than 2,400sqkm.
Secured transboundary ecological landscape will help ensure long-term conservation of endemic species such as the golden langur the mascot of BTC and endangered species like the Asian elephant, royal Bengal tiger and varied other flora and faunal species it supports. Kaziranga National Park, Manas National Park, Nameri National Park, Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Orang National Park are the five other existing national parks in the state.