New Delhi: The Supreme Court quashed an FIR on sedition case filed by the Uttar Pradesh police against senior journalist Vinod Dua on Thursday. The Uttar Pradesh police filed a sedation case against Kerala based journalist, who went to cover the Hatras rape case incident.

According to the IPC Section 124A describes sedition as punishable with imprisonment from three years to a lifetime a fine, or both. Uttar Pradesh police has filed over 22 sedition cases in the wake of a sexual assault in Hathras last year. Among them is Kerala-based scribe Siddique Kappan. As per the legal experts, Thursday’s ruling will come as a relief for journalists facing sedition cases. Interestingly, another bench of the Supreme Court has already issued a notice on a set of other petitions to examine the interpretation of the sedition law, particularly in the light of media rights and freedom of speech.

This Supreme Court judgement on sedation case gives relief to many journalists who have been at the wrong end of this law can expect relief on similar grounds. It will be interesting to see if the court examines the law clause by clause so that enough checks and balances will be in place and its misuse can be minimized, said Supreme Court advocate Ashish Singh.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, conviction rate in sedition cases was 3.3 per cent in 2019. The Delhi police earlier this year filed such cases against journalists Mrinal Pande, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vinod Jose, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath and Anant Nath for sedition, among other charges, after the farmers’ tractor rally in Delhi on Republic Day. The Supreme Court has stayed the arrest of all of them.