Dr Vinayak Binayak Sen v/s. State Of Chhattisgarh

  • Saurabh Singh, MNLU Aurangabad
  • December 4, 2020

Content :

Sedition law is more than just a law which we can get by just reading this case of Binayak Sen who was secretary of PUCL Chhattisgarh unit accused of indulging in conspiracy for inciting dissatisfaction in terms of violence against the government established by law. Police officer search and seize certain material and letters under possession of him transferred to the another convict Nayal Sanyal while meeting him in Jail by Binayak Sen. The chain of events and part of this chain in form of exchanging of letters between convicts constitutes as offence of conspiracy under section 120B and sedition under 124A of IPC. The defence counsel Ram Jethmalani given all the argument regarding Binayak Sen’s nature of works, his social status, and misuse of state power by police but all went in vain. The court held him guilty of offence of sedition after considering all the circumstantial evidences in proportionate to the gravity of offence committed. I analyse the case from the point of view of law sedition and its evolution from the Kedar Nath Singh case right after decade of the commencement of the constitution. The case in hand (Binayak Sen) presents the application of this law of sedition rather than its philosophical or jurisprudential aspects. So, I tried to understand the application of this law from the perspective of its evolution and further, issues and challenges attached to it in future.