Expressing views that are different from government opinion, cannot be termed “sedition” – says Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has ruled that, expressing views which are dissent and different from government opinion cannot be termed as seditious. Article 370, granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir was scrapped in August, 2019. Farooq Abdullah, MP, as well as former Chief Minister of J&K, opposed this.  Two persons, Rajat Sharma and Neh Srivastava, filed a petition in the Supreme Court, stating that Farooq Abdullah should be disqualified as an MP. The petitioners have stated that, Farooq Abdullah is anti-national, since he had opposed the removal of Article 370. Hearing this petition, the Supreme Court has stated that, expressing views that are different from government opinion, cannot be termed as “sedition”. Further, the Supreme Court imposed a fine of Rs.50,000/- on the petitioners.

[ Courtesy :  NDTV. Com dt. 03-03-2021]