The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the hearing of a PIL challenging the constitutional validity of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code while ordering the petitioner to serve a copy of the petition to the office of the Attorney General of India.
The three-judge bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy deferred the hearing on the petition which alleged the IPC section was ultra-vires Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution, read with Articles 14 and 21.
The PIL has been filed by retired Additional DG, Army Headquarters, S.G. Vombatkere. It said, “A statute criminalising expression based on unconstitutionally vague definitions of ‘disaffection towards Government,’ ‘Hatred,’ ‘Contempt’ and ‘Feelings of Enmity’ is an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental right to free expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (a) and causes constitutionally impermissible ‘Chilling Effect’ on speech.
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“The Provision makes every speech or expression that ‘brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law in India’ as criminal offence, punishable with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The Provision has also been classified as ‘cognisable’ and non-bailable,” mentioned the plea.
The bench, due to some technical problem arising during the hearing conducted through video-conferencing mode, listed the matter for further hearing on Thursday.