Sloganeering isn’t Seditious Says Former SC Judge Faizanuddin

Raising slogans doesn’t account to sedition, says Ex-SC Justice Faizanuddin who gave landmark sedition ‘95 judgement.

A former judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Faizanuddin, has said that the case against the members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) does not account to sedition, according to The Indian Express.

The case against Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar does not amount to sedition. India is the largest democracy in the world. Something or the other is said every day in some corner of the vast country. Are we to be affected by this? What is going to happen to us by mere raising of slogans? I find it laughable.

Justice Faizanuddin to The Indian Express

Also read: When Students Engaged in Politics and Weren’t Called Anti-National

Justice Faizanuddin, along with Justice AS Anand, had delivered the 1995 verdict in favor of Balwant Singh and Bhupinder Singh were arrested on 31 October 1984 and charged with sedition.

The two men raised slogans like ‘Raj Karega Khalsa’, ‘Hinduan Nun Punjab Chon Kadh Ke Chhadange’, ‘Hun Mauka Aya Hai Raj Kayam Karan Da’ hours after the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

1984 Sedition Case

Balwant Singh was an assistant in the office of DPI Punjab in Chandigarh while Bhupinder Singh was a senior clerk in the Punjab School Education Board, Chandigarh.

The special court first declared a sentence of one-year long rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 500 on 2 March 1985, according to a report by The Economic Times.

The two public servants challenged the sentence and the case went on for 15 years before the two were acquitted by the Supreme Court. He served 6 months jail time in Chandigarh before the Supreme Court granted bail to him.

According to The Indian Express, the Supreme Court bench in 1995 ruled the following

The raising of some lonesome slogans, a couple of times by two individuals, without anything more, did not constitute any threat to the Government of India as by law established nor could the same give rise to feelings of enmity or hatred among different communities or religious or other groups.