When Sedition was used to target teacher and independence leader Lokmanya Tilak’s lectures

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant, and Justice Hima Kohli has ruled that Section 124 A which hands down Sedition charges, “against any attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government estab­lished by law in India", will be put on hold and has urged the states and centre to not register any FIRs under Section 124A until the review of the law is complete.

The current hearing came into reality after the Supreme Court issued a notice on the petitions in July 2021. While lamenting the provision of Sedition in an earlier hearing, CJI had also mentioned Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the use of the colonial-era law to suppress his activities.

Apart from being an independence activis, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, also called as “Lokmanya”, was also a teacher.

Lokmanya Tilak, who has been tried on three different occasions by the Bombay High Court for sedition, had his third run-in with the law for a series of lectures on “Swaraj” or self-rule.

Tilak, who was defended by the founder of Pakistan and then lawyer Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was arrested in 2016 over lectures on attaining Swaraj through constitutional means.

Known as “The father of Indian unrest”, Tilak was ordered to supply a bond of Rs. 20,000 but the high court eventually ruled that the entire speech didn’t violate the law due to which the magistrate’s order was deemed unjustified.

Lokmanya Tilak’s tryst with education didn’t just stop with lectures as his other ventures include co-founding the New English school for secondary education and setting up the Deccan Education Society, which established Fergusson College where he taught Mathematics to students. Lokmanya Tilak aimed to improve the quality of education of Indian students through his works.