Bombay high court on Monday observed that freedom of speech should not suffer because of a threat of invoking sedition against an individual for expressing his views.
A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar re-heard a PIL filed by advocate Sanskar Marathe following the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi. The court had reserved its verdict on October 19, 2012. The recent Paris attacks made the bench recall that it had dealt with a cartoonist's case.
Advocate general Sunil Manohar said the state has taken a prima facie view that Trivedi's cartoons do not amount to offence under Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code. He said in wartime these very cartoons may be viewed as seditious. "The scope of 124A is kept flexible for a purpose,'' said Manohar. He submitted a draft of guidelines to be issued to the police saying it will bring clarity in investigations but added that "while it is necessary that innocents should be protected, the guidelines should not fetter the police''. He assured that the state would take care of the apprehension that an individual may suffer because of abuse of power by the investigating agency.