Dismissing a petition, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said disagreeing with the government opinion is not any offence and hence, will not be considered a sedition.
The bench headed by Justices Hemant Gupta and Sanjay Kishan Kaul said expressing views in difference with government opinion will not be seditious.
The petition was filed by two of the members of an organization Vishwa Guru India Vision of Sardar Patel against the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah. In the petition they said that said that the National Conference leader was continually commenting against the centre’s move to scrap Article 370, which gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. They also alleged him of trying to “hand over” Kashmir to China.
“Mr Farooq Abdullah has committed an offence punishable under section 124-A of Indian Penal Code. As he has made the live statement that for restoring Article 370 he would take help of China which clearly amount to seditious act and therefore he is liable to be punished under section 124-A of the IPC,” said the plea.
The MP was held as a national threat soon after the scrapping of Article 370 till December 15 but later his detention was extended till March 15. Somehow, he got released on March 13 in 2020.
