f https://www.boomlive.in/law/supreme-court-sedition-law-section-124a-23033 Supreme Court Constitution Bench To Examine Validity Of Sedition Law By - Ritika Jain | 12 Sept 2023 the Supreme Court referred the batch of pleas challenging the validity of the sedition law to a Constitution Bench of “at least five judges”. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said the bench would also decide if the top court’s 1962 verdict upholding the sedition law required reconsideration.
The Kedarnath Singh judgment was decided on a narrow understanding of fundamental rights that were prevalent at the time, the top court said. Sedition was examined only in the context of free speech, the bench further observed. Since then, several judgments have been passed which say Articles 14 (right against discrimination), 19 (free speech), and 21 (right to life) must operate in harmony, it added.
Responding to Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta’s argument that the BJP-led government was in the midst of changing the law governing criminal jurisprudence, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Gopal Sankarnarayan, representing parties who have challenged the sedition law, argued that sedition exists in the new bill as well – just under a new name. The new bill, they said was “even more draconian”. Reading out the text of the incumbent law—Section 124A—Sibal said the idea of sedition penalizing disaffection to the government and the state was “fundamentally wrong”.