SC To Hear Pleas Challenging Validity Of Sedition Law

The Supreme Court of India will hear a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the sedition law in the country on Wednesday.

The matter will be taken up for hearing by a three-judge bench including Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.

The apex court had expressed its concern over the misuse of the colonial-era penal law on sedition in April last year.

It questioned the government at the centre as to why it was not repealing the law that was used by the British to silence people like Mahatma Gandhi and to suppress freedom movements.

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Saying that its main concern was the misuse of law which led to a rise in the number of cases, the SC agreed to examine the pleas filed by the Editors Guild of India and a former Major General S G Vombatkere.

They had challenged the constitutional validity of Section 124 A (sedition) in the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Notably, Section 124 A is a non-bailable provision which makes any speech or expression that brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law in India a criminal offence punishable with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

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