Bowing to public pressure and criticism from the court, the Maharashtra government today informed the Bombay High Court that it has decided to drop sedition charge against cartoonist Aseem Trivedi for allegedly insulting national symbols.

"After having a close look at the case, it can be seen that there is clearly no case under section 124(a) of IPC for sedition. Hence the government has decided to drop invocation of the charge against Trivedi," Advocate General Darius Khambata told the court.