Vaiko moves HC against conviction in sedition case

Vaiko in his plea has submitted that a decisive ingredient for establishing the offence of sedition under Section 124-A of the IPC is the doing of certain act which would bring hatred or contempt to the government established by law in the country. In this case, there is not even a suggestion that he did anything against the Indian government or any other State government. For that matter, the charges framed against him does not contain any averment that he did anything against the government.

Noting that the trial court had convicted and sentenced him based only on presumption, Vaiko said, “The decision of the trial court is perverse as the reliance were made on the facts which are not proved by any evidence or even by material produced before the court but based on the personal view of the trial judge.”

The trial court erred in its interpretation of Section 124-A of the IPC with regards to the words spoken by him on the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed to Indian citizen under Article 10 of the Constitution. The effect of the words spoken must be judged objectively and from standards reasonable, Vaiko said.

Also, holding that the trial court erroneously rested its conclusion based on inadmissible evidence, the MDMK leader sought to set aside the judgement, conviction and sentence made under Section 124 A of the IPC.

Vaiko was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for a year and to pay fine of Rs10,000 by the special court for trial of criminal cases involving elected Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. Subsequently, the conviction and sentence were stayed for a month. The alleged seditious speech was made by Vaiko while releasing his book Naan Kutram Sattugiren (I accuse) in 2009.

The sedition case slapped on Vaiko by DMK, which is now sending him to Parliament as a Rajya Sabha member, as per the electoral pact reached between the two parties for the April 18 Parliamentary election.

Cases under sections 124 (a) (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, place of birth, residence, language) of the IPC were slapped against him for supporting theoutlawed LTTE.