(Bloomberg) -- India’s Supreme Court put on hold the use of a controversial sedition law to allow its review by the federal government, which faced criticism for misusing it to silence critics. 

In a rare move, a panel of three judges led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana said the law shouldn’t be operational till further orders. The direction came after the government’s lawyer Tushar Mehta filed a plea, informing the bench of a decision to reconsider the law. The draconian measure entails a maximum punishment of lifetime in jail for bringing hatred, contempt or disaffection toward the government.

More than 13,000 people are facing sedition charges in India and most of them were filed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed power in 2014, according to data compiled by Article 14, a group run by journalists, lawyers and academics. The latest verdict will help several of them to secure bail. 

The bench said no new sedition cases shall be lodged and police shouldn’t take any coercive measure in the pending ones. It also agreed to pause the top court hearing on cases challenging validity of the 152-year-old law till July 3 to give the federal government a change to take a new stand on the law.

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