The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 12, 2025) asked if “potentiality of abuse” by the state of Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which punishes “acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”, could be a ground to declare the law itself unconstitutional.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi raised the question to senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, appearing for the Foundation of Independent Journalism and Siddharth Varadarajan, one of the founding editors of the online news portal The Wire, who is facing a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 152 and other offences under the BNS at Morigaon Police Station, Assam, for the publication of a news article.
