The Supreme Court on Tuesday made “absolute” the interim anticipatory bail granted to cartoonist Hemant Malviya, facing criminal prosecution in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly denigrating Lord Shiva, the RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi through his caricatures on social media.

The bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria passed the order after senior counsel Vrinda Grover, appearing for Malviya, placed before the court details of the apology tendered by the cartoonist.

The court recorded in its order that Malviya had already tendered his apology on his Facebook and Instagram handles, and there was no reason to doubt his submission.

Additional solicitor-general K.M. Natraj, representing the Madhya Pradesh government, did not object to the order as the bench directed the cartoonist to continue cooperating with the investigating agencies probing the case. The state government can approach the court for cancellation of bail if Malviya fails to cooperate, the bench said.

On July 15, the court had granted interim anticipatory bail to the cartoonist, indicating that it might issue some general orders in the matter, given the increasing trend of misusing the fundamental right to free speech and expression.

The court was dealing with an appeal filed by Malviya against the Madhya Pradesh High Court judgment of July 3 dismissing his anticipatory bail application on the ground that he was not entitled to the protection of Section 41-A of the CrPC/ Section 35 of the BNSS and safeguards enunciated in the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar (2014) case.