Safdar Nagori, the former general secretary of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), has approached the Supreme Court seeking clarification on whether its 2022 order freezing sedition proceedings would apply to his pending appeal before the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Nagori, who was convicted of sedition and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017, argues that his appeal should proceed as the trial has already concluded.
Nagori had filed an appeal before the Indore bench of the MP High Court challenging his conviction under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), among other charges. However, during final arguments on May 15 this year, the high court deferred further hearing after encountering the Supreme Court’s May 2022 directive that all sedition-related proceedings be kept in abeyance pending constitutional scrutiny of the law.
In response, Nagori has now sought the Supreme Court’s intervention to clarify whether its freeze on sedition proceedings includes appellate matters where the trial has concluded and conviction has already occurred.
A vacation bench comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and R. Mahadevan issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh government and listed the matter for further hearing after the court reopens in the second week of July.
The bench noted that the petitioner’s appeal was at the final stage before the high court but had been stalled due to the Supreme Court’s earlier order. Senior advocate Shadan Farasat, appearing for Nagori, argued that the May 2022 directive was meant to shield individuals from fresh sedition charges, not to indefinitely stall appeals where a conviction had already been pronounced. He urged the bench to clarify that the appeal process may continue without violating the spirit of the freeze order.
However, the vacation bench observed that since the original 2022 order was passed by a three-judge bench, the present bench could not issue any clarification, and recorded that the high court had indeed sought clarity regarding Paragraph 8(d) of the May 11, 2022, order.
That order, passed while hearing a batch of petitions led by SG Vombatkere challenging the constitutionality of Section 124A, directed that all pending “trials, appeals and proceedings” under the sedition law should be kept in abeyance. It, however, allowed proceedings under other charges to continue if no prejudice would be caused to the accused.
Nagori’s appeal is particularly complex, as his life sentence was imposed specifically under the sedition charge, while he faces additional convictions under other sections, including promoting enmity (IPC Section 153A) and various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He has already spent over 17 years in prison and remains lodged in Bhopal Central Jail.
The sedition case against Nagori and other SIMI members was registered in 2008, several years after the organisation was banned in 2001 for alleged anti-national activities. The Centre has continued to renew the ban on SIMI, with the latest extension issued in January 2024 for another five years.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the present matter could have wider implications on how courts across the country deal with sedition appeals that are currently in limbo pending the constitutional review.
