SC to hear on Jul 27 plea challenging validity of sedition law

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on July 27 the plea challenging the Constitutional validity of sedition law.

A division bench of Justices UU Lalit and Ajay Rastogi was hearing the plea challenging Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, which penalises the crime of sedition.

On April 30, the apex court had issued notice on the plea for reconsidering the 1962 Kedar Nath ruling on 124A.

The bench granted two weeks as per the request made by Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for filing their responses in compliance with the notice issued in the previous hearing.

The plea, filed by two journalists--Kishorechandra Wangkhemcha and Kanhaiya Lal Shukla--working in Manipur and Chhattisgarh respectively, have urged the court to declare Section 124-A as unconstitutional.

The petition claimed that Section 124-A infringes the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression, guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

The petitioners claimed that they have been raising questions against their respective state governments and central government, and have been charged with sedition under Section 124A of IPC in various FIRs for comments and cartoons shared by them on social networking website Facebook.