Will review sedition law provisions: Centre to SC

NEW DELHI: The 152-year-old colonial law on sedition in India is set to be reviewed, the Union government informed the Supreme Court on Monday while imploring the court to suspend the ongoing judicial scrutiny of the penal provision till the government takes a call on the issue.

“The government of India, being fully cognisant of various views being expressed on the subject of sedition and also having considered the concerns of civil liberties and human rights, while committed to maintain and protect the sovereignty and integrity of this great nation, has decided to re- examine and reconsider the provisions of Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code, which can only be done before the competent forum,” stated a three-page affidavit filed through the Union home ministry.

The Centre also said it was cognizant of various views, and concerns about civil liberties while being committed to protecting the “sovereignty and integrity of this great nation”.

The Union ministry of home affairs, in the affidavit, referred to the views of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on shedding “colonial baggage” and said he has been in favour of the protection of civil liberties and respect of human rights, and in that spirit, over 1500 outdated laws and over 25,000 compliance burdens have been scrapped.

It said the prime minister has said that India, as a nation, has to work even harder to shed colonial baggage that has passed its utility which includes outdated laws and practices.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli on May 5 had said it would hear arguments on May 10 on the legal question of whether the pleas challenging the colonial-era penal law on sedition be referred to a larger bench for reconsidering the 1962 verdict of a five-judge constitution bench in the Kedar Nath Singh case.

The affidavit, filed by Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, Additional Secretary of the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA), said there are divergences of views expressed in the public domain by various jurists, academicians, intellectuals, and citizens in general.

“The Government, being fully cognizant of various views being expressed on the subject of sedition and also having considered the concerns of civil liberties and human rights, while committed to maintain and protect the sovereignty and integrity of this great nation, has decided to re-examine and re-consider the provisions of Section 124A of the IPC which can only be done before the competent forum,” it said.

The central government urged the top court that in view of the decision to reconsider the law, “this court may not invest time in examining the validity of section 124A once again and be pleased to await the exercise of reconsideration to be undertaken by the Government of India before an appropriate forum where such reconsideration is constitutionally permitted.” The government said concerns have been raised about the application and abuse of sedition law for purposes not intended by the provisions.