SC refers pleas against sedition law to Constitution Bench

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on September 12 decided to refer a batch of petition challenging the constitutional validity of sedition to a Constitution bench of at least five judges.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud will take a call on whether the case will be heard by a bench of five judges or seven judges since a five-judge Constitution bench upheld the validity of sedition in 1962, albeit watering it down.

In passing this order, the CJI-led bench rejected government's request to defer the hearing of the plea as it plans to implement new criminal laws. The CJI  noted that criminal legislations have a prospective effect and not a retrospective effect. When an act is classified as a crime in 2023, someone who committed it before 2023 cannot be punished.

The apex court in May 2022 put the law on hold and ordered the Centre and states not to register any sedition case under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which, it said, was not in tune with the social milieu. It permitted reconsideration of the provision.

All pending trials, appeals and proceedings with respect to the charge framed under Section 124A were to be kept in abeyance. Adjudication, if any, could proceed if courts were convinced that no prejudice would be caused to the accused, the court had said.

If a fresh case was registered, the affected could approach courts for relief, it said. The bench had turned down the Centre's suggestion that an officer in the rank of the superintendent of police be made responsible for monitoring the registration of FIRs for sedition.

The law provides for a maximum life term under Section 124A for creating "disaffection towards the government". It was added to the penal code in 1890, 57 years before Independence and almost 30 years after the IPC came into being.

In the pre-Independence era, the provision was used against freedom fighters, including Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

Between 2015 and 2020, 356 cases of sedition were registered under Section 124A and 548 people were arrested, data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show. However, only 12 people arrested in seven sedition cases were convicted in the six-year period. The top court had in 1962 upheld the validity of the law while attempting to restrict its scope for misuse.

"Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the government established by law in [India], shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine, reads section 124A (sedition) of the IPC,” it said.