Supreme Court gives Binayak Sen bail, questions sedition charge
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COMMENTS 
India’s Supreme Court allowed rights activist Dr Binayak Sen bail and made the point that being a sympathiser of a banned organisation does not amount to sedition
Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chhattisgarh trial court for sedition and helping Naxalites set up a network to fight the state, Binayak Sen took his battle against an unjust conviction and sentence to the Supreme Court, which granted him bail on April 15, 2011.
The many supporters of the rights activist, a doctor working in Naxal affected areas who has been a strong critic of the government’s policy and methods in the region, have accused the state of vengeance in awarding such a harsh sentence on largely unproven evidence.
Dr Sen challenged the order of the Chhattisgarh High Court not allowing him bail.
No case for sedition was made out against Sen, the apex court bench of Justice H S Bedi and Justice C K Prasad said while making a scathing observation that a person does not become a Gandhian just because he is found with a biography of Mahatma Gandhi.
The court said that even if the state government’s contention that Sen was in possession of banned material and was involved in its circulation were true, it did not justify the charge of sedition.
“We are a democratic country. He may be a sympathiser (of Naxalites) but it did not make him guilty of sedition… He is a sympathiser. Nothing beyond that,” the bench said.
It said the evidence produced by the state government that Sen met co-accused Piyush Guha 30 times in jail, and that pamphlets and documents relating to Maoist activities were recovered from his possession, did not mean that he was involved in seditious activities.
The judges persistently asked to see documents that proved the charge of sedition. Senior advocate U U Lalit, appearing for the state government, said that Sen had visited the jail and exchanged documents with Guha and others.
This did not satisfy the bench, which said: “Visitors are screened and searched by the jail staff when they go and meet the inmates. The jailors are there to oversee all these things. So the question of passing letters or documents doesn’t arise.”
“The worst that can be said is that he was found in possession of general documents (relating to Naxal activities), but how can it be said that such possession would attract the charge of sedition. How can you lay the charge of sedition,” the bench asked.
While granting bail, the bench said: “We are concerned with the implementation of the judgment as no case of sedition is even made out.”
Dr Sen, 61, is presently in a jail in Raipur, in Chhattisgarh. He was sentenced by the trial court on December 24, 2010, for sedition. On February 10, 2011, the Chhattisgarh High Court rejected his bail plea.
Source: www.thehindu.com, April 15, 2011,
www.hindustantimes.com, April 15, 2011