The Supreme Court will on Thursday examine a fresh plea challenging the constitutional validity of the sedition law, asking the petitioner to serve a copy of the plea on attorney-general K.K. Venugopal who will have to address the court during the hearing.

The petition, filed by Maj. Gen. S.G. Vombatkere, has pleaded for quashing of the colonial-era sedition law on the ground that it has a “chilling effect” on the freedom of speech and expression of citizens and is being increasingly used across the country by parties in power to suppress any form of dissent.

A bench of Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana and Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy adjourned the matter to Thursday because of glitches in the virtual hearing.

“Due to a technical glitch, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner was not visible but audible. We direct the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner to serve a copy of the writ petition upon the learned attorney-general for India immediately. List the writ petition on July 15,” CJI Ramana said.

On Monday, another bench of Justices U.U. Lalit and Ajay Rastogi had sought the views of the Centre on a similar plea made by two journalists from Manipur and Chhattisgarh. At that time, Venugopal had sought two weeks’ time for placing the government’s views, following which the court had adjourned the matter to July 27

In the wake of Wednesday’s developments, it is unclear whether the bench headed by the CJI will deal with the constitutionality of the sedition law or it will be referred to the other bench headed by Justice Lalit.

But there is also a possibility of CJI Ramana, after initial hearing the petition, referring the matter to a constitution bench of five or more judges to examine the constitutional validity of Section 124A in view of the fact that earlier a five-judge constitution bench had in the Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar (1962) case upheld the constitutional validity of the sedition law.