Sedition Law Validity Case Referred to a Larger Bench by the SC

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sent the case challenging the constitutionality of the sedition legislation to a bigger bench. In addition, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led federal government’s appeal to delay decision-making in the issue while a parliamentary committee investigates it was denied by the supreme court.

DY Chandrachud, Chief Justice of India, and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, along with CJI, submitted the case to a five-judge constitutional panel.

These arguments were brought before the Supreme Court on May 1, but the hearing was postponed when the Center indicated that it was well along in its consultations for a review of the criminal clause.

Tushar Mehta, the solicitor general for the center, said that the previous administration had the opportunity to alter the harsh legislation but chose not to do so. Currently, the current administration is working to fix it.

Senior attorney Kapil Sibal responded on behalf of the petitioners by saying, “The new one is more draconian.”

The Centre had introduced three bills to replace the IPC, CrPC, and the Indian Evidence Act in the Lok Sabha on August 11 in a historic move to update colonial-era criminal laws, proposing, among other things, the repeal of sedition law and the introduction of a new provision with a wider definition of the offense.

The top court took notice of Attorney General R. Venkataramani’s statement that the government has started the process to reexamine section 124A of the IPC when it heard these petitions on May 1.

“R Venkataramani, Attorney General for India, states that in pursuance of the order dated May 11, 2022, the government has initiated the process of re-examining the provisions of section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and consultations are at a substantially advanced stage,” the apex court had noted in its order from May 1st.

In a ground-breaking ruling on May 11 of last year, the Supreme Court ordered the Center and States to stop registering any new FIRs using the colonial-era criminal legislation on sedition until a “appropriate” government forum reexamined it.

The top court had said that in addition to the filing of FIRs, all investigations, trials, and other procedures throughout the nation involving the sedition statute will be put on hold.

Section 124A of the IPC, which imposes a maximum prison sentence of life for inciting “disaffection towards the government,” was added to the criminal code in 1890, 57 years before India’s independence and almost 30 years after the IPC was created.