Overview

• The bench of Justices M. M. Sundresh and N. Kotiswar Singh declined to hear his plea to quash the FIR and granted four weeks’ protection to allow him to seek relief from the Gauhati High Court.
• The court issued notice on his constitutional challenge to Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and tagged the case with other pending petitions on the provision.
• The FIR, registered on August 21 at the Guwahati Crime Branch on a complaint by Alok Baruah, books Sharma under BNS Sections 152, 196 and 197.
• The case stems from an August 8 YouTube video referencing Gauhati High Court proceedings on the allotment of 3,000 bighas in Dima Hasao and comments the complainant said could provoke communal sentiment, including criticism framed as a slight to ‘Ram Rajya’.
• Senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued Section 152 has become an omnibus tool used against journalists, as the court noted he should not bypass the High Court and referenced earlier protections granted to Siddharth Varadarajan and Karan Thapar in related Assam matters.