The central authorities knowledgeable the Supreme Court Wednesday that staying provisions of sedition, upheld by the Constitution, will not be the “correct approach”.
The Center was responding to the Supreme Court, which had sought to know if it’s going to direct states to hold instances below the supply in abeyance till the reexamination of IPC Section 124 A, coping with sedition, is accomplished. On Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, showing for the Centre, stated, “a cognizable offense cannot be prevented from being registered, staying the effect may not be a correct approach and therefore, there has to be a responsible officer for scrutiny, and his satisfaction is subject to judicial review.”
“As far as pending sedition cases are concerned, the gravity of each case is not known, maybe there is a terror angle or money laundering. Ultimately, the pending cases are before the judicial forum, and we need to trust the courts,” the Solicitor General added.
Sedition listening to in SC: Govt stand on future instances pending overview of provision; instances to be registered provided that officer not beneath rank of SP data his satisfaction in writing; regulation laid down by SC in VInod Dua case to be scrupulously adopted. @IndianExpress
— Ananthakrishnan G (@axidentaljourno) May 11, 2022
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had noticed that the reexamination train “will take two months, three months, whatever time, we do not know ultimately… Till this is cleared, why don’t… you, as a Central government, through your Ministry issue a direction to the states that matters be kept in abeyance till that time.”
To this, SG had responded that he’ll focus on it with the federal government. “That’s what we are saying, that you can issue a direction to the state governments… We also presume that there may be a serious offence tomorrow. There are certain pockets which are very sensitive as far as the nation is concerned. Assuming that something happens there, there are other penal provisions which can take care of the situation. It’s not that the law enforcement agencies will be helpless.”
The Center in its affidavit on Monday had urged the apex court docket to defer listening to on petitions difficult the Constitutional validity of the regulation till it might “re-examine and re-consider the provisions of Section 124A”.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
