Sedation for 152-yr-old...

The offence of sedition is punishable with jail term ranging from three years to life. CJI Ramana said the court has to undertake a difficult exercise of balancing civil liberty and sovereignty of the nation. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioners, once again argued that the law be scrapped. He pointed out that there are over 800 cases of sedition filed across India, under which 13,000 people are languishing in jails. After firmly defending the sedition law and repeatedly asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the pleas challenging it, the government on Monday did an about-turn, saying it has decided to review the legislation. According to government sources the U-turn came on the instructions from PM Modi himself. Section 124A of the IPC dealing with sedition was drafted by Thomas Babington Macaulay and included in the IPC in 1870. As CJI Ramana mentioned in the course of the hearing, it was used by the British against freedom fighters, including Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, branding them as terrorists. The Supreme Court had on Tuesday accepted the Centre's prayer to re-examine the sedition law. Sedition is a non-bailable offence and the punishment varies from imprisonment up to three years to a life term and fine. Section 124A of the IPC, which deals with sedition, states: "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."