New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that a journalist’s news article or video is Prima Facial which is not an Act to endanger the unity and integrity of the country to invite an allegation under Section 152 of BNS under IPC Section 124A.A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymlya Bagchi said that members of the ‘Independent Journalism’ Foundation spoke about a complaint on a complaint that allegedly wrote about the operation during operations, protecting the editor of the news website ‘The Wire’, Siddharth Varadarajan, and in an FIR registered by the Assam Police. Munshi said that he wrote a report quoting India’s defense personnel, including the country’s military attachments for Indonesia.
Any good law can be misused or abused: SC
The bench said, “To write articles or prepare a news video, journalists should get entangled in matters? Does they need arrest?”Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the petition filed by a journalist challenging the validity of Section 152 is a camouflage to avoid accountability.Justice Kant said, “We are not classifying journalists as a separate class. However, is an article an imminent threat to the unity and integrity of the country? It is an article, not as if someone is smuggling illegal weapons and ammunition in India.”On the allegation of the petitioners, Section 152 does not define which work provisions constitute a crime, Justice Kant said, “How can it be duly defined that all acts would be a crime of endangered the unity and integrity of the country?”,Looking at the petitioners, senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan said that he has also challenged the validity of BNS Section 152, which is nothing but a sophisticated version of the Draconian Section 124A, which was actually stalled by a bench of five-judges by a bench of five-judges.The court did not accept his second line argument that Section 152 was prone to misuse and misbehaving by the police. Justice Bagchi said, “Possible misuse or misuse has been misused or misused by officials to give a valid basis to the provision of law.Justice Kant had the same response. “Any good law declared constitutional by SC can be misused or abused by police officers. Is this a basis to declare the law unconstitutional? In Kedar Nath Singh (in 1962 case), SC’s rule continues the region and in which SC has ruled that the crime of SCE is banned against real violence or violence.Senior advocate Ramakrishnan said that the word ‘sedition’ is not in Section 152, but the intention of provision for all other purposes is similar to Section 124A and is being used rapidly to harass journalists.The bench reluctantly agreed to tag the petition with a petition by SG Vombatkere, which has also challenged the validity of Section 152 and whose first petition challenged section 124A has been challenged.
