Source : Bar and Bench The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition challenging the validity of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises sedition. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde said that the petitioners are not affected parties and have no cause of action to challenge the contentious provision. The petition filed by three advocates Aditya Ranjan, Varun Thakur and V Elanchezhiyan has contended that the sedition law is a colonial relic which was used by the British against Indian Freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The petitioners have submitted that the indiscriminate and unlawful use of the Section 124A against Journalists, women, children, students and other persons was in clear defiance of the interpretation of the provision given by the Apex Court of India. The plea states that the law does not lay down any institutional responsibility on the Police in case of its misuse and no procedural safeguards are available under the Code of Criminal Procedure unlike UAPA. The petitioner has therefore prayed for striking down Section 124A or in the alternative to give strict directions to the Central and State government to instruct their respective Heads of Police to follow the restrictions laid down by the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath case and Balwant Singh v. State of Punjab.