Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court on Thursday issued a notice to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma after hearing petitions which sought directions to restrain him from making "hate speeches" targeting the 'Miya' community. 'Miya' is a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam.
After the hearing, a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhury, ordered that notices be issued to Sarma as well as Assam and central governments.
The court, however, refused to pass an ad-interim order immediately restraining Sarma from making such statements. "I think you would agree that without a notice and without the person being represented, that won’t be appropriate. We shall see," the Chief Justice said.
On the matter of issuing a notice to the ruling BJP whose official social media handle released a controversial AI-generated video recently, the court said it was not necessary.
The video, deleted in the wake of the controversy, showed Sarma taking aim and firing with a rifle at an animated image of two men wearing skullcaps.
The petitioners included the Congress, well-known Assamese litterateur Hiren Gohain and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Recently, the Supreme Court refused to entertain petitions seeking action against Sarma over the viral video. The top court had asked the petitioners to instead approach the Gauhati High Court with their grievances. It had directed the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court to expedite the hearing on the matter.
During the hearing in the Gauhati High Court on Thursday, the petitioners’ counsels, including Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Chander Uday Singh, submitted that Sarma made provocative and threatening statements against the 'Miyas'. They had also referred to the video in question.
Singhvi argued that Sarma’s repeated statements demonstrated a consistent pattern of “incitement” and that they did not align with his responsibilities as the head of the State.
The court observed that the statements cited by the petitioners appeared to show a “fissiparous tendency” but said it would examine all submissions before reaching the conclusion.
The next hearing will take place on April 21.