(Image source from: Former justice of the Supreme Court Of India)

The retired Supreme Court judge, former Solicitor General of India and was Lokayukta for Karnataka State, N Santosh Hegde  argued that the act of some JNU students, who allegedly termed the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru as 'judicial murder' and raised anti-India slogans, 'definitely amounts' to sedition. He said that he is in 'favour' of the sedition law, as some 'restrictions' are needed to stop people from abusing and talking against the country.

"I believe in sedition law. I am a patriot. Any patriot cannot go on abusing the country. There are certain parameters," the former Karnataka Lokayukta said. "Many people think differently in this country, whose allegiance is with some other country or some other group, if democracy has to survive, then there should be some restrictions on the people talking against the country. Forget all other things. You criticise the government, criticise the individuals, criticise the system. Patriotism can never be criticised," he said.

"In Pakistan what happened? A Virat Kohli's fan showed Indian flag and was sentenced for 10 years. No country can never ever compromise on its integrity. Forget everything else. So far as integrity of the nation is concerned, never ever compromise it," Hegde said, adding.

"I don't believe in that judgement. Sedition means propagating some views which are against the nation. As long as the judgement of the Supreme Court is there, I am bound to say, it is the law of the day, today. I am one of those persons who would say that the judgement should be changed," Hegde said. "You can't meddle with patriotism.

Everything is alright (but) patriotism can never be compromised," Hegde added.

"What about Indian Penal Code. How old is it? You scrap Indian Penal Code because somebody is involved in a crime? (and wants it to be scrapped). It is a 230-year-old act.
You change it," Hegde said. "There are ways and means of saying it. There are people who say they don't believe in the death sentence. But I would ask them a question. What happens to the fundamental right of a victim who died? Who was killed by somebody else. It's a very, very sad day for a country, he added.

"Urgent reform is a system by which every judgement is delivered within one year in criminal cases and within two years in civil cases. Remove all the appeals provision. Like in the United States, there is one trial court and one appellate court. Supreme Court (in the US) is not meant for civil cases," he said.

By Premji