Challenge to validity of sedition as an offence: As petitioners and AG oppose reference to a larger bench for different reasons, Supreme Court agrees to wait till Tuesday
Prameela K
Published on: 5 May 2022, 11:20 am
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising the Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, on Thursday, wanted to know from the senior counsel whether it could examine the validity of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code[IPC] which deals with the offence of sedition, when a five-judge bench in the Kedar Nath Singh vs. State of Bihar (1962) had already upheld the validity of this law. It thus adjourned the matter to Tuesday afternoon directing the petitioners, the Attorney General[AG] for India and the Union government to file their written submissions before the next hearing as to whether or not the matter should be referred to a larger bench of five or seven judges. The bench has made it clear that it would first decide the issue of referral to a larger bench, before hearing arguments on whether the verdict in Kedar Nath Singh should be reconsidered.
Kapil Sibal's submissions
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for the group of petitioners, sought to contend that the matter did not require reference to a larger bench because the judgment in the Kedar Nath Singh case was passed in the A.K. Gopalan era (1950-1970). In the A.K. Gopalan era, each of the fundamental rights was considered by the Supreme Court to be in silos. Sibal added that after the R.C. Cooper judgment (better known as bank nationalisation case) (1970) there had been a sea-change in the jurisprudence regarding the inter-relationship between Articles 14, 19, and 21.
He submitted that the sedition law does not meet the test of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, and in the Kedar Nath Singh case, it was not examined on the touchstones of Articles 14 and 21, and hence, there was no need to send the matter to a larger bench. Sibal implied that a reference to a larger bench would be justified only if there had been no change in the circumstances when the Supreme Court decided the Kedar Nath Singh case. Sibal suggested that the Court in subsequent cases, including the Puttaswamy case (right to privacy), had laid down specific tests through larger benches and therefore, the validity of Section 124A IPC could be tested by a smaller bench.
