Centre defends sedition law in Supreme Court, says requires no reconsideration

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Saturday defended in the Supreme Court the penal law on sedition and the 1962 verdict of a constitution bench upholding its validity, saying they have withstood “the test of time” about six decades and the instances of its abuse would never be a justification of reconsideration.

A bench of three judges comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, on May 5, said that it would hear arguments on May 10 on the legal question of whether the pleas challenging the colonial-era penal law on sedition be referred to a larger bench for reconsidering the 1962 verdict of a five-judge constitution bench in the Kedar Nath Singh case.

“Instances of the abuse of provision would never be a justification to reconsider a binding judgment of the constitution bench. The remedy would lie in preventing such abuse on a case-to-case basis rather than doubting a long-standing settled law declared by a constitution bench for about six decades,” said the 38-page written submission filed through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The reply also raised the issue of corum and opposed the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal that in a changed fact situation a bench of three judges can also test the validity of the sedition law, saying “no reference, therefore, would be necessary nor can the three-judge bench once again examine the constitutional validity of the very same provision”.

The top court, in 1962, had upheld the validity of the sedition law while attempting to restrict its scope for misuse.

It had held that unless accompanied by incitement or a call for violence, the criticism of the government cannot be construed as a seditious offence.

The Centre’s view incidentally matched with the submissions of Attorney General K K Venugopal, who on Thursday had strongly batted for the retention of the provision in the IPC, saying “referring the Kedar Nath (judgement) to a larger bench is not necessary. It is a well-considered judgement.”

The written submission of the Centre, settled by the solicitor general, referred to a host of judgments and said, “The bench of three judges cannot reconsider the ratio of a judgment of a constitution bench without referring the matter to a larger bench.

For a reference to a larger bench also it will be absolutely necessary for the bench of three judges to record its satisfaction that the ratio in the Kedar Nath Singh is so patently wrong that it needs reconsideration by a larger bench.

Referring to the batch of petitions, the reply said none of the PIL petitioners has shown any justification based upon which this court can record a finding that the 1962 verdict “is patently illegal requiring reconsideration”.

A holistic reading of the judgments evidently shows that the constitution bench, in the 1962 verdict, had examined the constitutionality from all possible angles, including Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression), and therefore, remains binding.