‘Sedition cases jump 160 pc between 2016-19’

New Delhi, July 15: Sedition cases spiked by 160 per cent between 2016 to 2019 and conviction rate in such matters stood at just 3.3 per cent in 2019, according to an analysis of officlal data by a rights lawyer.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, referred to and quoted by rights lawyer Vrinda Grover, assumes significance in view of the observations of an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana that there have been “enormous misuse” of the colonial era penal law on sedition and very low rate of conviction in such cases.
Grover, using the NCRB data, told PTI that there has been a consistent rise in the number of sedition cases being filed, and between 2016 to 2019, there has been a 160 per cent increase in the number of cases filed for sedition. On the issue of cases culminating in convictions, she again referred to data and said in 2019, 30 cases of sedition were decided, with 29 acquittals and one conviction and the “rate of conviction is abysmal, being 3.3 per cent”. (PTI)