New Delhi: Two days after defending the country’s colonial-era sedition law and asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the pleas challenging it, the government on Monday did an about-face, saying it has decided to re-examine and reconsider provisions of the law.
In a new affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the centre saying, “In the spirit of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (75 years of Independence) and the vision of PM Narendra Modi, Government of India has decided to re-examine and reconsider the provisions of Section 124A, Sedition law.”
Based on petitions filed by the Editors’ Guild of India and others, the government urged the Supreme Court to wait for the review before ruling on the case.
Concerned with the widespread use of the sedition statute to suppress critics of the federal and state governments, the Supreme Court asked the union government in July last year why it was not deleting the provision used by the British to muzzle persons like Mahatma Gandhi.
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