Centre’s undertaking to reconsider sedition law not binding on Parliament: Supreme Court
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The Supreme Court on Friday verbally observed that an undertaking given by the Union government that it would reconsider the offence of sedition under the erstwhile Indian Penal Code cannot stop Parliament from introducing it in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Hindustan Times reported.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi noted that the legislature functions independent of the executive. It was hearing a batch of public interest litigation petitions challenging several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Section 152.
The section of the criminal law pertains to acts that endanger India’s sovereignty, unity and integrity. It criminalises a wide spectrum of expressive conduct, including those who “purposely or knowingly” use words to “excite or attempt to excite” secession, rebellion or subversive activities.
Critics have contended that the provision effectively reintroduces the colonial-era offence of sedition under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. They argue that sedition was slipped into the law again in the guise of Section 152 when the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced the Indian Penal Code in July 2024.
In their pleas against provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the petitioners referred to an undertaking given by the Union government in May 2022 to the Supreme Court that Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code would be reviewed.
The court had at the...