The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea challenging the validity of section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which relates to the offence of sedition, on the ground that the petitioners have no cause of action.
A three-judge bench headed by CJI SA Bobde and comprising Justices Bopanna and Ramasubramanian, cited the court’s precedent in the Kusum Ingots case to state that a law cannot be challenged without a cause of action.
When the CJI questioned the petitioners on their cause of action, Senior Advocate Anoop George Chaudhari appearing for the petitioners argued that the matter is of public interest and certain directions need to be issued by the court to follow its previous rulings in Kedarnath and Balwant Singh cases. The petition had cited cases like Balwant Singh v. State of Punjab (1995) where the Court had clarified that merely shouting slogans, in this case “Khalistan Zindabad”, does not amount to sedition.
LiveLaw reported that to this, CJI retorted saying, “But we don’t have a case before us of persons rotting in jail. You come before us in a concrete case. Dismissed.”
The petitioners, Advocates Aditya Ranjan, Varun Thakur and V. Elenchezhiyan had argued in their petition that a colonial provision like section 124A which was intended to subjugate the subjects of British crown should not be permitted to continue in a democratic Republic, under the continuously expanding scope of fundamental rights.
The plea further stated that while democratic principles have evolved, the impugned law which is a relic of the colonial era, is still stifling the freedom of speech and expression in India and threatening the life and liberty of citizens of India if they choose to express dissent against policies of the Governments in power.
The petition had sought directions from the apex court to direct the Government to instruct their respective Heads of Police to ensure that the police act with greater sensitivity and refrain from arresting citizens merely for raising stray slogans without creating any adverse law and order situation.
The order may be read here.
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