The Supreme Court on Thursday granted journalist Abhisar Sharma interim protection from arrest for four weeks in the case against him for accusing Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of engaging in communal politics, Bar and Bench reported.

Refusing to entertain Sharma’s plea to quash the first information report against him, a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh directed the journalist to approach the Gauahati High Court.

Sharma was booked on August 21 under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to acts endangering national unity and sovereignty, promoting enmity between groups and making assertions prejudicial to national integration.

The case was filed based on a complaint by Alok Baruah, a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Baruah alleged that Sharma ridiculed and denigrated the Union government and the Assam government, and thus endangered national sovereignty. He claimed that the journalist “ridiculed the principle of Ram Rajya [or the reign of the Hindu deity Ram], and openly accused the chief minister of Assam of communal politics”.

Sharma had described the case as “completely baseless”.

In his petition before the Supreme Court, the journalist said that the case misuses provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita to silence dissent and curb press freedom, Bar and Bench reported. He also told the court that his remarks were supported by verifiable facts, including video clips of speeches made by the Assam chief minister.

The journalist also challenged Section 152 Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, describing it as a “reincarnation” of the repealed sedition law under the Indian Penal Code.

In May 2022, the Supreme Court had ordered proceedings and criminal prosecutions for sedition under Section 124A of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code to be kept in abeyance.

Critics have argued in the Supreme Court, in a separate matter, that Section 124A was slipped in again into the law in the guise of Section 152 when the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced the Indian Penal Code in July 2024.

The Supreme Court on Thursday tagged Sharma’s constitutional challenge with other similar pleas, Live Law reported.

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