NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that consultations for re-examining provisions of the sedition law are at a substantially advanced stage with all stakeholders.
Making the submission, Attorney General R Venkataramani urged a bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud to post further hearings on a batch of petitions challenging Section 124A of the IPC after the monsoon session of Parliament. The bench then posted the matter for the second week of August.
Though senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan urged the bench to list the pleas before a seven-judge bench, the court indicated it would have to be placed before a five-judge bench first.
On October 31, 2022, the Attorney General had told a bench led by former CJI U U Lalit that something could happen regarding the sedition law in the winter session of Parliament.
He drew the court’s attention to the government considering new draft bills for IPC and CrPC in Parliament. Recently, Union home minister Amit Shah had said the government was looking into several suggestions to improve IPC and CrPC.