Amarinder Singh govt’s sacrilege bill has history, will be open to misuse

Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh | @capt_amarinder/Twitter

The Punjab government plans to table the bill in the assembly during the next session.

The Punjab cabinet Tuesday cleared an amendment to the Indian Penal Code to make “sacrilege of all religious texts punishable with life imprisonment”.

Immediately after the meeting, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh announced that the government “will place the Bill in the Vidhan Sabha for approval”, adding he stood “firmly committed to preserve communal harmony in the state”.

The timing of the decision is interesting – it has been taken within days of Amarinder’s cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu visiting Pakistan. Television channels have largely termed the visit controversial after Sidhu was seen warmly embracing the Pakistan army chief. Although, that visit may lead to Pakistan opening a corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to Kartarpur Sahib on the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev.

The proposed amendments in the IPC may be Amarinder’s way to counter Sidhu, seen by many as growing in stature after the visit. It is also a smart political move that could help the Congress in the run up to the general elections next year.

If the amendments are passed by the Punjab assembly and also receive the assent of the President, the amended Section 295AA will read something like this: “Whoever causes injury, damage or sacrilege to the Guru Granth Sahib, the Bhagvad Gita, the Quran and the Bible with the intention to hurt the religious feelings of the people, shall be punished with imprisonment for life”.

This, however, isn’t the first time a government in Punjab is trying to “strengthen” the law to give “exemplary punishment to all those who flare up communal tension”.

What the government is not grasping, at least for now, is the scope of misuse of the amended law.

There are many who feel the amended law will give power to some elements to impede the right to freedom of speech and expression of anyone they don’t like.

With demands for protecting free speech gaining more traction, the amendment will most certainly make free speech proponents’ hackles rise. The Punjab government’s move could end up putting people in jail for asking relevant questions.

And, what is the guarantee that the new clause won’t be misused against religious minorities as is happening in neighbouring Pakistan?

Section 295A:

The original version of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, didn’t have this clause. It was added almost seven decades later – in 1927 – after a pamphlet Rangila Rasula, arthat araba ke apaigambara ka eka siksaprada itihasa, critical of the personal life of Prophet Mohammad, was published by one Mahashe Rajpal. He was booked under Section 153A of the IPC (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony).

While hearing the appeal, where Rajpal’s lawyer took the stand that it was a satire and not an attempt to the promote enmity between religions, the Lahore high court “reluctantly” acquitted him on the ground that there was no law that dealt with punishing anyone for writing a so-called satire on a religious figure or god.

However, following the acquittal, the British got the missing clause inserted in the IPC, thus giving birth to Section 295A.

Section 295A deals with “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs” and carries a maximum imprisonment of three years.

The clause has been deemed constitutional by various courts, including the Supreme Court, on several occasions.

Previous bid to amend law:

In 2016, the Punjab assembly passed a bill that sought the addition of Section 295AA to the IPC besides Section 295A. The bill, passed during the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government, also sought a life sentence for anyone found guilty of desecrating the Guru Granth Sahib.

The Punjab government at that time – under attack for the worsening law and order situation as well as increasing instances of desecration of the holy book of the Sikhs – felt that three years wasn’t enough punishment and raised it to life term.

However, the IPC was not amended because the Narendra Modi government – the Akali Dal is a member of the NDA which rules at the Centre – returned the bill, saying it went against the spirit of the Constitution since it dealt with the holy book of only one religion, Sikhism.

The Centre told the state to either withdraw the bill or get a fresh one passed which covered holy books of all religions.

The amendment was found to be inconsistent with the settled law in the S.R. Bommai judgment, in which a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that the state was “enjoined to accord equal treatment to all religions and religious sects and denominations”.

The judgment also pointed out that the “protection of their (all religious groups) life and property and of the places of their worship” was an “essential part of secularism enshrined in our Constitution”.

Incidentally, the Congress in 2016 had pointed out the legal infirmity in the bill brought by the Badal government.

Interestingly, although the bill was viewed as a populist move, its passage did nothing to shore up the electoral performance of the Badal-led SAD, a party which draws its strength mainly from the Sikhs. It went on to lose the 2017 assembly elections to the Congress, with even the runners-up place being taken up by (then) the still-fledgling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Earlier this year, after receiving a legal opinion, the Congress government withdrew the bill on its own.

What next:

Now that Captain Amarinder has indicated that his government plans to bring the amendment before the assembly in the next session, the bill will most likely be passed.

But, since the bill (if it is passed) will be in conflict with the parent legislation, the IPC, it will be sent to the President for his assent.