The recent spate of FIRs invoking sedition charges against journalists for allegedly sharing unverified information on social media about ...
The recent spate of FIRs invoking sedition charges against journalists for allegedly sharing unverified information on social media about the death of a protestor during the farmers’ tractor rally on January 26 has prompted a former Supreme Court judge to call for an interventionist approach by the apex court to deal with the “rampant abuse of the criminal justice system”.
The latest National Crime Research Bureau data shows that only 3% of sedition cases resulted in convictions in 2019, even as the number of cases filed rose by 165% from 2016 . The pattern is mirrored in cases filed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which saw a 33% increase in arrests in this period. In 2019, the latest year for which data is available, 11% of UAPA cases were closed and chargesheets were filed in only 9% of cases.
As the Law Commission noted in its report, legal remedies available to people who are wrongly or maliciously prosecuted are inadequate.
Scroll.in spoke to senior Supreme Court advocate and founder of Human Rights Law Network Colin Gonsalves on the need for a legal framework to make the state pay for violating civil liberties by way of wrongful or malafide prosecution.
There have been many cases where a judicial finding of acquittal has been accompanied by an indictment...
