A 60-year-old Constitution Bench judgment validating sedition law led a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Thursday to pause to examine if petitions challenging the colonial provision should be referred to a larger Bench of five or seven judges of the court.
The 1962 judgment in Kedar Nath versus State of Bihar delivered by a Bench of five judges of the Supreme Court had upheld Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code while restricting its applicability to “activities involving incitement to violence or intention or tendency to create public disorder or cause disturbance of public peace”.
A judicial law laid down by the Supreme Court cannot be countered by a numerically inferior Bench.
