The Supreme Court said it will hear in January a batch of pleas challenging Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises the offence of sedition. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said it would constitute an appropriate bench to hear the case and posted the matter in January.
In August, the Central government introduced a bill in Parliament to replace colonial-era penal statues, proposing, among other things, the repeal of the sedition law. Earlier, the apex court had said it would constitute a Constitution bench of at least five judges to hear the case.
It had declined the Center’s request to defer examining the validity of the sedition law as the new Bill (Bharathiya Nyaya Samhita) is pending for consideration before a standing committee of Parliament.
A three-judge bench headed by CJI said that even if the new bill becomes law, it can apply only prospectively and the past cases will be prosecuted as per the IPC; therefore, the challenge to Section 124A of the IPC will continue to be relevant regardless of the new law. Therefore, the new law will not obviate the need for a constitutional adjudication on the validity of the provision, as the top court said in the order. The apex court had said the reference of the challenge to the sedition law to a larger bench was needed as the provision was upheld by a five-judge bench in the 1962 Kedar Nath Singh case.