New Delhi, Aug. 9 -- The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre's response on a petition challenging the constitutional validity of section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the offence of sedition punishable under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai and comprising justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria further directed the petition to be tagged with a pending batch of cases where the validity of the erstwhile section 124A is already under challenge. The petition filed by retired Army officer SG Vombatkere, a Vishisht Seva Medal winner, described the new provision as nothing but a "repackaged" sedition law, reintroducing section 124A under a new nomenclature. Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate PB Suresh along with advocate S Prasanna pointed out that though the language of the new provision has been altered a bit, its substantive content which seeks to criminalise vague and broad categories of speech and expression makes the provision arbitrary and discriminatory, and hence unconstitutional. Incidentally, Vombatkere had challenged the earlier provision of section 124A, and it was on his plea among a batch of petitions, the top court in May 2022 directed all proceedings related to sedition to be kept in abeyance....