The Centre on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court for a week more to file its response to pleas challenging the validity of the sedition law. This is the second time in as many days the government is asking for an extension. Earlier, it had asked for 24 hours more to file its response to the petitions seeking to quash the colonial sedition law. The Centre has now made its latest request on the very eve of the much-anticipated final hearing of the sedition case on May 5 before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana. The two-page application filed by the government on May 4 merely said the drafting and approval of the contents of its response on whether or not sedition should survive in the penal code is taking “more time”. The reply, it said, is still pending with the “competent authority”. The application did not expand on the identity of this “competent authority”.
“No more adjournments”
In fact, the apex court, in its last hearing on April 27, had directed the Solicitor General to file a counter-affidavit by the end of the same week. Posting the case for May 5, the court had said it may hear arguments in the matter for the whole day. It had made it clear that it would not tolerate any adjournments on May 5. “It is most respectfully submitted that the drafting and approval of the affidavit is taking some more time and is pending with the competent authority. Therefore, the instant applicant (Union of India) prays for an extension of the time period set for filing the counter-affidavit by one week,” said the government’s application. The government assured the court that its application was “bona fide and in the interest of justice”. The court has 11 more working days before closing for summer holidays. It reopens on July 11. Chief Justice Ramana, who leads the current Bench hearing the case is scheduled to retire on August 26. People from all walks of life, including senior journalists Patricia Mukhim and Anuradha Bhasin, cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, Editors Guild of India, NGO Common Cause, former Minister Arun Shourie and prominent citizens like retired Army General S.G. Vombatkere, represented by advocate Vipin Nair, have challenged the colonial law. Last year, the CJI himself had voiced what could be an unprecedented judicial criticism of the way sedition was used by the government to crush liberties. “Sedition is a colonial law. It suppresses freedoms. It was used against Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak... Is this law necessary after 75 years of Independence?” Chief Justice Ramana, heading a three-judge Bench, had orally addressed Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre. Chief Justice Ramana had said sedition or Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code was prone to misuse by the government. “The use of sedition is like giving a saw to the carpenter to cut a piece of wood and he uses it to cut the entire forest itself,” Chief Justice Ramana had said.
Silencing dissent
The CJI’s oral statement in open court is significant amidst rising public denouncement of Central and State law enforcement agencies using the sedition law to silence dissent, muffle free expression and deny bail to incarcerated activists, journalists, students and civil society members. A number of petitions have been filed highlighting the “chilling effect” sedition has on the fundamental right of free speech. The CJI’s remarks has also opened the floor for debate and introspection on the court’s own judgment in 1962, in the Kedar Nath case, which upheld Section 124A. Outside the court, several former apex court judges, including Justice Madan B. Lokur, had highlighted the mental trauma inflicted on the families of activists, journalists and civil society members accused of sedition under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and left to languish in jail for months. Justice Lokur had questioned the morality of a society where the families and friends of incarcerated people have to face barbs about their loved ones being branded traitors for expressing their dissent.
