Explanation:

• Recently, a Sessions court in Mumbai rejected the anticipatory bail application of a student booked under Section 124A (sedition) of the IPC along with 50 others.
• The sedition charge was filed on the basis of slogans that the student had raised in favour of another student who has already been booked for sedition.The court said the slogan “attracts the ingredients of sedition”.
• Section 124A IPC states: “Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which a fine may be added; or, with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which a fine may be added; or, with fine.”
• Section 124A, and was introduced by the British colonial government in 1870.It was actually brought to suppress the freedom struggle prevalent then.
• It was first used to prosecute Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1897.Mahatama Gandhi, too, was later tried for sedition for his articles in Young India.The Constituent Assembly debated to include sedition as a ground for restricting free speech.