Sedition: SC puts law on hold, asks govts to refrain from fresh cases

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday put the sedition law on hold and urged the Centre and the state governments to refrain from registering any FIRs invoking Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A Bench headed by Chief Justice N. V. Ramana, and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the governments should not use the sedition law until the Centre completes its review.

The apex court has allowed the Centre to re-examine and reconsider Section 124A of the IPC which criminalises the offence of sedition.

“It will be appropriate not to use this provision of law till further re-examination is over. We hope and expect the Central government and states will refrain from registering any FIR, continuing investigation, or taking coercive steps under 124A IPC when it is being reconsidered by the Centre,” the court ruled.

It said if sedition cases are registered, the parties are at liberty to approach the court which has to expeditiously dispose of it, the SC said.

The top court will hear pleas challenging the validity of the sedition law in July.

India’s Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that the government proposes that a police officer of the level of superintendent of police (SP) or above should decide whether they should file a sedition charge in the future FIRs. As the government reviews the sedition law, pending sedition cases can be reviewed, and the courts can decide on the bail application of those under Section 124A IPC, expeditiously, he added.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing one petitioner, contended that Section 124A has become prima facie unconstitutional and the apex court must stay the application of the sedition provision until the Centre reviews the provision.

Mehta submitted that as far as pending cases are concerned, their gravity remains unknown. Maybe there is a terror angle. “We need to trust the courts,” he added.

The move came after the Centre, in a fresh affidavit on Monday, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is of the firm view that the baggage of colonial-era laws, which outlived their utility, must be scrapped during the ongoing Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ (75 years of Independence).

In that spirit, the Centre has scrapped over 1,500 outdated laws since 2014-15, it said.

(VP)