The Central Government today has filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court in the batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of sedition law and stated that the sedition law needed no reconsideration.
Filing the affidavit before the Supreme Court, the Central government had said that the judgement in Kedar Nath Singh against the State of Bihar is a good law and needs no reconsideration.
“We have gone through the entire case. Our reply is this. This judgement in Kedar Nath Singh against the State of Bihar is a good law and needs no reconsideration,” the Centre stayed in its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court.
The affidavit further stated that the judgement must be treated as a binding precedent requiring no reference.
“A holistic reading of Kedar Nath Singh clearly reveals that the Constitution Bench considered the constitutional validity of Section 124-A from the perspective of all constitutional principles including a test of Article 14, 19, 21 contained in Part III,” the affidavit, further stated, filed before the Supreme Court.
The Central government in its affidavit further stated that individual instances of misuse are not ground to reconsider Kedar Nath Singh.
“No reference, therefore, would be necessary nor can three-Judge Bench once again examine the constitutional validity of very same provision,” the Centre told the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had asked the Centre in its last hearing to make its stand clear in the batch of petitions filed before challenging the constitutional validity of sedition law falls under 124-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The petitioners in the case challenging the constitutional validity of the Sedition law are The editors Guild of India (EGI), former Major-General S G Vombatkere, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament- Mahua Moitra, Anil Chamadia, journalist, Patricia Mukhim and many others.
Section 124-A (Sedition law) of the IPC deals with any speech that brings or brings into hatred or contempt or disaffection towards the government established by law in India a criminal offence punishable with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Former Union minister of Information Technology (IT) and veteran journalist, Arun Shourie also moved the Supreme Court on the issue and filed a petition before it and said that sedition law is violative of Articles 14 and 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.
(More informations and inputs are awaited)