File photo of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis
A Maharashtra government order on sedition that was seen to ban criticism of the government or politicians was put on hold by a court today.
The circular must be withdrawn and a new one must be issued, the Bombay High Court said today, acting on a petition that had called it "arbitrary and aimed at curbing freedom of speech".
The circular was issued last month by the state's BJP-led government after the court asked for guidelines on sedition following outrage over cartoonist Aseem Trivedi's arrest in 2012.
"Words, signs or representations will be treated as seditious if they are against a representative of the government," said the circular.
The court's guidelines had said that the "words, signs or representations against politicians or public servants by themselves do not fall in this category unless the words/signs/representations show them as representative of the government."
The slight change in wording has made a world of difference, alleged activists. The term "representative of the government" can be misused, they say, to include politicians, which means any critical comment against them can lead to a jail term.
State officials had claimed that they only translated the court guidelines from English to Marathi.
The high court issued the guidelines to check the arbitrary use of the law related to sedition, which prescribes a life term as maximum punishment. It had said that sedition cannot be invoked whenever the government is criticised, unless it leads to violence and public disorder.