I was charged with sedition in Mysore for a social media post; is the charge valid?
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Section 124A of the IPC has been kept in abeyance by the Supreme Court in S.G. Vombatkere v. Union of India (2022), pending re-examination, and no fresh FIR should be registered under it. The new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita does not contain an exact equivalent, but Section 152 covers acts endangering sovereignty, which is also subject to strict scrutiny. File a writ petition under Article 226 in the Karnataka High Court to quash the FIR if it was registered under Section 124A after the 2022 order. The court will examine whether the speech had a tendency to incite violence or public disorder, which is the threshold from Kedar Nath Singh. Karnataka Rent Control Act 1999 cannot revive the sedition offence in defiance of the Supreme Court's order. Preserve the FIR, the post and the complaint in Mysore, and the court can also direct action against the complainant for a malicious prosecution.
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