Supreme Court of India has issued notice to the Gujarat government in a plea filed by Patel-patidar leader Hardik Patel challenging the December 1 order of Gujarat High Court refusing to drop sedition charges against him.
High Court had dropped the treason charges against Patel and five of his associates but had retained sedition charges against them.
While issuing the notice, the bench comprising of Justices J S Khehar and R F Nariman observed:
…we cannot call it causal the attacks on police and judiciary.
On December 1, after hearing the arguments, Justice J B Pardiwala of Gujarat High Court had ordered for dropping of three charges under IPC from the FIR viz section 121 (waging war against government), 153-A (promoting enmity between different communities) and 153-B (assertions prejudicial to national integrity). However the charges under IPC sections 124 (sedition) and 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against government), which attract punishment of life imprisonment or up to 10 years were retained.
Patel was represented by senior counsel Kapil Sibal who submitted before the Court that the charges have wrongly been invoked against him as there was no conspiracy to wage war against the government and at best, it is the case of use of “intemperate language” which can be tried under some other penal provisions, reported PTI.
Court shall now hear Patel’s plea along with his previous special leave petition to appeal before the Supreme Court, on January 5, 2016.
Read order here.
http://onelawstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/hardik-patel-15dec2015.pdf
