India’s antiquated Penal Code

A number of seemingly unrelated controversies in India actually have one important element in common - they all relate to criminal offences codified by India’s British imperial rulers in the mid-nineteenth century that India has proved unable or unwilling to outgrow.

The problematic features of the British-drafted Indian Penal Code include the prohibition of ‘sedition’, defined loosely as speech or actions promoting ‘disaffection against the government established by law’; the criminalisation of homosexual acts; and the uneven prosecution of adultery.

The first two, in particular, have lately been the source of considerable public outrage - and rightly so. These provisions - as I argued when introducing amendments to them in the lower house of parliament (of which I am a member) - can easily be misused by the authorities in ways that infringe upon Indians’ constitutional rights.