Picture : Twitter / ANI
The Supreme Court has said it would hear arguments on May 10 on the legal question whether the pleas challenging the colonial era penal law on sedition be referred to a larger bench and granted time to the Centre to file its response.
A special bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya kant and Hima Kohli commenced hearing arguments on a batch of pleas against the sedition law and after sometime adjourned it to next Tuesday.
At the outset, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, sought few more days’ time for filing the reply, saying the draft response made by lawyers awaits approval by competent authority as the issue is of extreme importance. Secondly, some fresh matters have been served recently and the contents of those pleas also needed a response. List this matter on next Tuesday at 2 pm.
The Solicitor General to file counter (affidavit) by Monday. No further adjournments (will be granted), the CJI said. The bench, on April 27, had directed the Central government to file the reply saying it would commence the final hearing in the matter on May 5 and would not entertain any request for adjournment.
Attorney General of India KK Venugopal told Supreme Court that sedition law should not be stuck down but there is need of guidelines on this section. What is permissible, what is impermissible and what can come under sedition need to be seen
