New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on March 3 said voicing dissent against the government did not amount to sedition, while rejecting a plea to “terminate” the Lok Sabha membership of Farooq Abdullah and book him for sedition.
A Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul rejected a petition accusing Abdullah, president of the National Conference of Jammu and Kashmir, of stating that “in Kashmir that he will get Article 370 of the Constitution restored with the help of China” during a speech on September 24.
The petition filed by Rajat Sharma and Neh Srivastava, both belonging to an organization Vishwa Guru India Vision of Sardar Patel, alleged that the former chief minister was trying to “hand over” Kashmir to China and thus, he should be prosecuted for Sedition.
Sharma argued that Article 370 had been deleted from the Constitution by majority in Parliament.
“Everybody knows that there are only two countries in the world which are trying to grab the Indian part of Indian territories, namely China and Pakistan, which mean that Farooq Abdullah is trying to hand over the Kashmir to China or Pakistan, which is totally contrary to the provision of the Constitution and amounts to sedition,” his petition said.
The bench rejected the plea and imposed a fine of 50,000 rupees on the petitioners for making such claims.
“Expression of views which are different from the opinion of the government cannot be termed as seditious,” the bench observed.
Sources: thehindu.com, telegraphindia.com