Today, the Supreme Court referred the petitions challenging the sedition law (Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code) to a bench of at least 5-judges.

The bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said that a reference to a larger bench was needed as the provision was upheld by a 5-judge bench in the 1962 judgment Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar.

''Being a smaller bench, it may not be appropriate for it to doubt or overrule Kedar Nath'' said the bench.

The Court in its order said that the matter of Kedar Nath was decided on the basis of the narrow understanding of the fundamental rights which was prevalent then. Also, Kedar Nath examined the issue only from the angle of Article 19, as per the understanding of Constitutional law prevalent then that the fundamental rights operate in distinct silos. 

"We direct registry to place the papers before the CJI so that a decision can be taken on the administrative side to hear this batch of cases by a bench of at least five judges", a bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud has ordered.

Today, before the bench, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal asserted that the new law was significantly more detrimental than its predecessor.

In May of this year, Attorney General R Venkataramani had apprised the Supreme Court that the process of reviewing Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code had progressed significantly. It was during this time that Senior Advocate Arvind Datar had brought to the court's attention that, in consideration of the Kedarnath judgment (a 5-judge decision), it was necessary to deliberate whether the matter should be referred to a 7-judge bench.

Last year, in May the Supreme Court had issued a directive to suspend the 'Sedition Law' until further notice. The Court had specifically instructed both the Central and State governments not to initiate any cases under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code.