The Supreme Court on Thursday granted journalist Abhisar Sharma a four-week interim protection from arrest, directing him to approach the Gauhati High Court to challenge a criminal case filed against him in Assam over a video. The bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Kotiswar Singh clarified that while they would protect Sharma temporarily, the high court remained the appropriate forum to hear his challenge to the FIR.
Sharma’s petition challenged a private individual’s FIR lodged against him for questioning the Assam government’s decision to allot 3,000 bighas of tribal land to a private cement company. The journalist argued that the video, based on proceedings in the Gauhati High Court, highlighted the government’s focus on divisive politics rather than public issues of importance. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, representing Sharma, emphasized that Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), a repackaged sedition provision, is being misused against journalists, noting ongoing petitions in the Supreme Court on this matter.
Sharma described the FIR as “a classic case of misuse and abuse of Section 152 BNS to stifle dissent and journalistic freedom.” He asserted that his video, which criticized political rhetoric and governance failures, did not incite violence or target any religion. Highlighting his three-decade career in journalism, Sharma maintained that questioning government policies is protected under the constitutional right to free expression and cannot be treated as anti-national or a threat to the unity of India.
