Kolkata : Justice Rajinder Sachar on Saturday urged people to unite and launch a movement for repealing the ‘sedition laws – 124A’ of Indian Penal Code.
Section 124A, he said, offended the fundamental right of freedom of speech and used as “weapon of oppression across the country from Bastar to university campuses”.
Addressing mediapersons at an event by People’s Union For Civil Liberties, a human rights body, he said the sedition laws are of British era which were framed to serve a purpose under the foreign rule but the same continue even now. Urging all to unite to pressurise the government to repeal sedition laws and Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA), Sachar said in the past major leaders had spoken against sedition laws but nothing happened as human rights do not find much importance in the political parties’ agenda.
Despite the incidents at JNU, Hyderabad central university and a few others, neither Left nor Congress which are in the opposition demanded repealing of the sedition laws. Reacting to his much-debated Sachar Committee report on minorities, he said i “I do not have data on implementation and impact but I am not satisfied with all the consecutive governments, be it at Centre or in the states,” he added.
