A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice UU Lalit, Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice KM Joseph on Saturday issued a notice upon the office of the Attorney General for India, in connection with a writ petition (criminal) case filed before the apex court by two journalists.
The writ petition filed by Kishorechandra Wangkhemcha from Manipur and Kamal Shukla from Chhattisgarh challenged section 124A of the IPC which lays down the punishment for sedition.
It prayed for an appropriate writ, order or direction declaring Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 to be unconstitutional and void.
The petition stated that the section 124-A clearly infringes the fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India which guarantees that “all citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression.”
Further, the restriction imposed by the section is an unreasonable one, and therefore, does not constitute a permissible restriction in terms of Article 19(2) of the Constitution, it added.
Both the journalists have sedition charges levelled against them.
Kishorechandra was proceeded against three times in three FIRs because he used strong language against the chief minister of Manipur.
Kamal Shukla was proceeded against because he shared a cartoon criticising the government.
