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The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta to take instructions as to what will be status of pending and future sedition cases during the time the Centre re-examines the validity of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code i.e. sedition law.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India and consisting of Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli asked Solicitor General to respond to the query by tomorrow. 

The query was posed in the light of the affidavit filed by the Centre before the Apex Court stating that the Central Government is re-examining and re-considering Section 124A of IPC. The affidavit had also requested the court not to invest its time examining the validity of Section and await the outcome of the exercise undertaken by the Union of India.

When the matter came up for hearing, the Solicitor General informed the court that an affidavit has been filed by the Centre taking a stand on the issue and requested the court to adjourn the matter accordingly.

Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv, appearing for the petitioners, however, objected to the adjournment and said, "Court cannot wait for another jurisdiction to decide. I take strong objection.”

To this, CJI asked the Solicitor General as to how long the centre will take to re-consider the law. The SG answered that he cannot provide an accurate reply to the query.

CJI Ramana then noted that when the State says that the position is being re-examined, the court should not act in an unreasonable manner. Sibal, however, retorted to this saying that even if there is a new law, there should be an answer on the cases which are currently being tried under Section 124A IPC. 

Gopal Shankarnarayanan, Sr. Adv, appearing for the petitioner, also contended that this is a pattern followed by the government. He said, "When the order in the case pertaining to the privacy law was close to being reserved, the Union came and said they are setting up a committee. They did the same thing in marital rape hearing before the Delhi High Court also."

Justice Surya Kant then suggested that the Center should issue guidelines to the States asking them to keep sedition cases in abeyance till the process of re-consideration is over. To this, SG said, "It will really be hazardous to say henceforth don’t apply penal offences. In the history of this country no order has been passed not to used penal laws."

However, Justice Surya Kant said that there are other penal provisions that can take care of offences covered under sedition. To this, SG requested the court to grant him time so that he can get instruction from the government on this issue. 

CJI Ramana, at this point, clarified that the court's concern is twofold:

1) How is the government going to handle the pending cases under the Section during the reconsideration? and
2) How will the government take care of the future cases pending consideration?

The SG informed the court that he will take instructions in this regard and will inform the same to the court by tomorrow. Court, accordingly, adjourned the matter till tomorrow. 

The Supreme Court was hearing the plea challenging constitutional validity of the provision pertaining to Section 124A of the Indian Penal Cod i.e. sedition law.

On May 5, a Supreme Court bench headed by CJI Ramana and consisting of Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said that it would, on Tuesday (May 10, 2022), consider whether the challenge to the constitutional validity of Section 124A, requires consideration by a larger bench.

In April, the Supreme Court had allowed the Central Government to file it's response in a batch of petitions challenging constitutionality of Section 124A which penalises the offence of Sedition and listed the matter for final round of hearing on May 5.Earlier, the Court had issued notice and had asked the petitioner to serve a copy of the petition to AG Venugopal.

Case title: S.G. VOMBATKERE Vs. UNION OF INDIAE | EDITORS GUILD OF INDIA AND ANR. Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.