[BREAKING] Challenge to Sedition law: Central government seeks extension of one week to file reply

The Central government has sought another week's time to file a reply to the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 124A IPC, which deals with Sedition (SG Vombatkere v. Union of India and ors).

. A Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Hima Kohli and Surya Kant is slated to hear the batch of petitions tomorrow.

. This is the second extension being sought by the Centre to file a response. Last Sunday, the Centre sought an extension of one day to seek approval from the competent authority.

This time too, the reason for the delay in filing the reply has been attributed to the pending approval from the competent authority.

. The development comes in a plea by Major General SG Vombatkere, who sought a fresh examination of Section 124A, regardless of the fact that the provision was upheld by the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath Singh v. Union of India .

The petition states that a statute criminalising expression based on unconstitutionally vague definitions of ‘disaffection towards Government’ etc " is an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental right to free expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) and causes constitutionally impermissible ‘Chilling Effect’ on speech. "

The plea argues that the provisions of the law are disproportionate to the object it seeks to achieve.

. A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had in July last year issued notice in the plea and noted that Section 124A is a provision that was used by the British to quell the voices of Indian freedom fighters.

That Bench had observed that the law was now being misused when someone does not like the views of another person.

"Dispute is it is a colonial law and was used by British and suppress freedoms and used against Mahatma Gandhi Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Is this law still needed after 75 years of independence? Our concern is misuse of the law and no accountability of the executive," CJI Ramana had then said.

If police wants to fix somebody, they can invoke Section 124A and everybody is a little scared when this Section is invoked, the Bench had added.

. The Supreme Court subsequently sought the assistance of Attorney General KK Venugopal in the matter. However, the AG had opined,

"This Section need not be struck down and only guidelines be set out so that section meets its legal purpose."

The Bench replied that many pre-independence laws have been repealed by the government except the provision on Sedition.

"(If) some party doesn't want to hear the voice of other party they may use this type of law and implicate other people. Its a serious question for (freedom of) individuals," the Court had observed.

. The call to scrap the colonial-era law has come from several quarters , even as the Union Law Ministry maintained that there is a proposal pending for the scrapping of the provision.

Several sitting and former Supreme Court judges have spoken out against the misuse of the provision. After his retirement, Justice Rohinton Nariman had urged the top court to strike down offensive portions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) and Section 124A.

"I would exhort the Supreme Court to not send sedition law cases pending before it back to the Centre. Governments will come and go (but) it is important for the court to use its power and strike down Section 124A and offensive portion of UAPA. Then citizens here would breathe more freely," he said.

CJI Ramana had in August last year remarked that there is a recent trend of police officers facing sedition charges when the ruling political party with whom such officers were siding, loses power.

. The Supreme Court in May last year had said that Section 124A would require detailed interpretation with respect to its application to media and freedom of press.

A three-judge Bench had observed the same while granting protection from coercive action to two Andhra Pradesh news channels TV5 and ABN in relation to the First Information Report (FIR) registered against them by Andhra Pradesh Police for Sedition.

.Saw report of dead body being thrown into river; don't know if Sedition case has been filed against the news channel yet: Supreme Court

[BREAKING] Challenge to Sedition law: Central government seeks extension of one week to file reply

Debayan Roy

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