Assam legislator Akhil Gogoi files petition against Sedition and similar offences in Supreme Court

Assam legislator Akhil Gogoi on July 19 filed a writ in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the offence of sedition in Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 along with related offences.

Gogoi requested that Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution should be invoked to nullify Section 124A and any equivalent crimes that have the same justification as sedition.

Gogoi further urged to dismiss all criminal cases pending in courts across the country that involved the charge of sedition under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Assam MLA also asserted that also argued that more offences of a similar sort should also fall under the Supreme Court’s directives, which were issued in May 2022 and prohibit the registration of sedition charges.

It is worth mentioning that Gogoi, the president of the Raijor Dal and an independent MLA from Sivasagar, Assam, has a long history of facing legal issues related to the law he petitioned against. 

Due to his anti-government demonstrations against the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (later Citizenship (Amendment) Act), he had to deal with these issues earlier.