Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, May 11: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Centre’s stand on keeping the pending sedition cases in abeyance to protect the interests of citizens already booked and not registering fresh cases till the government’s re-examination of the colonial-era penal law is over.
The Supreme Court also said that if sedition cases be registered, the parties are at liberty to approach court and the court has to expeditiously dispose of the same. The top court asked the Centre to file a response on Wednesday.
Asking the Centre to take a clear stand after it posed the two specific queries, the top court agreed that a re-look of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) be left to the government, a day after it had filed an affidavit deciding to reconsider the contentious provision.
The court, on the other hand, voiced concern about the continued abuse of the clause, suggesting that guidelines or a decision to put the sedition statute on hold until the review process is concluded.
The Centre’s affidavit stated that it has decided to “re-examine and reconsider” the sedition statute in an “appropriate forum,” reversing its position just two days after vehemently defending it, and begged the Supreme Court not to “spend time” in re-examining its legitimacy.
The Supreme Court, which was debating whether a three-judge or five-judge panel should hear the batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the sedition legislation, took notice of the government’s fresh stand.
