IJU welcomes SC ruling on sedition
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, May 11 2022:
Indian Journalists' Union (IJU) has welcomed the ruling of the Supreme Court of India to keep application of sedition law in abeyance.
IJU, in a statement, informed that Journalists' Union of Assam, an affiliate of IJU, along with others challenged section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code as the law is being extensively used against independent media by the authorities.
A special bench of the apex court held that all pending cases, appeals and proceedings with respect to charges framed under Section 124A should be kept in abeyance.
IJU president and former member of Press Council of India Geetartha Pathak, and IJU secretary general & International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) vice-president Sabina Inderjit said in a statement that the decision will initiate a process to put an end to the century old draconian law that has been used by the powers to muzzle the voice of dissent.
IJU hopes that the gov ernment of India will revise it and review the sedition law and scrap the draconian law enacted by the British to suppress the independent struggle against the colonial rulers, it said and thanked senior advocate Chander Uday Singh, the team of lawyers of Interest Freedom Foundation that pleaded the case in the SC on behalf of Journalists' Union of Assam.