Is Sedition Law Under Section124A IPC Still Needed After 75 Years Of Independence? Supreme Court Asks AG

On Thursday, the Supreme Court questioned the Central Government about the need for the sedition law under s.124A IPC. "This dispute about the law is concerned, its colonial law, it was meant to suppress the freedom movement, the same law was used by British to silence Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak etc. Still, is it necessary after 75 years of independence”? asked CJI Ramana.  

A plea was filed by SG Vombatkere which was tagged with a pending plea filed by the Editors Guild of India. "It's the same issue and a challenge on the statutory provision, and we demanded certain guidelines. We said how 124A, apart from being unconstitutional, is being grossly misused”, argued Shyam Divan, Senior Advocate.  

To this, CJI Ramana referred to s.66A of the Information Technology Act, wherein "thousands of cases" were being registered despite the provision being struck down and people were arrested. There is a misuse of these provisions, but there is no accountability!" CJI Ramana also added that the main concern was the misuse of the law and zero accountability of the executive agencies.  

In the petition filed by SG Vombatkere, the Army veteran Major-General challenged the constitutionality of the offence of sedition under s.124A of IPC for being 'vague' and creating a 'chilling effect on free speech'. S.124A, which was upheld in the 1962 judgment in Kedar Nath Singh v Union of India was sought in this plea as a fresh examination. After hearing this, the court said, "the petitioner has sacrificed his whole life for the country for his service. We cannot say it is a motivated petition”. 

Responding to this, AG Venugopal mentioned, “this Section need not be struck down and only guidelines can be set out so that it meets its legal purpose." Further, while issuing the notice to the union, CJI said “I’ll look into it”. The notice was accepted by Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General.