Page 6 - Section 124a News Today

The Central government has filed an application before the Supreme Court seeking extension of time to files its response to the plea challenging Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which criminalises sedition.

The couple was arrested by the Mumbai Police on April 23 after they 'threatened' to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray's private residence.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Central government to file its response on petitions demanding striking down the sedition law by the end of this week. The top court will take up the matter for hearing on May 5.

Earlier CJI NV Ramana had observed that since the government had repealed so many outdated laws, was sedition still needed 75 years after independence.

The Mumbai Sessions Court directed the Mumbai Police to respond to pleas filed by MP Naveent Rana, and her husband and Member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Ravi Rana, seeking bail in the sedition case against them.

The sessions court application came on the same date the Bombay High Court dismissed their petition to quash an FIR accusing them of assaulting a police officer who allegedly came to arrest both of them.

Of the 405 Indians accused of sedition for criticising politicians and governments in the last decade, 95% were charged after 2014.

Granting bail to the petitioner, the court said that the charge of sedition was "wrongly added" just to aggravate the offence committed by him.

An Uttarakhand court recently acquitted former journalist and activist Prashant Rahi accused of being a Maoist, fourteen years after he was arrested

The three Kashmiri students who were charged with sedition, after allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans after Pakistan's victory in a T-20 Cricket World Cup match against India, have moved Allahabad High Court for bail.