New Delhi, 30 January: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition filed against the central government’s ban on the BBC documentary on the Gujarat riots. The court ordered hearing on this petition on February 6.
Today, a petitioner and advocate Manohar Lal Sharma mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, seeking an early hearing. Sharma said that the central government’s decision to ban the BBC documentary is arbitrary and unconstitutional. He said that common people have the right to see and know the news. #Ban-BBC-Documentary
Other petitions have been filed by journalist N Ram, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and others. Advocate CU Singh, appearing for these petitioners, mentioned before the bench headed by the Chief Justice that the Central Government, using the emergency provisions of the IT Rules, sought to remove the BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ from social media. He said that the tweets of N Ram and Prashant Bhushan were also removed. He said that emergency provisions cannot be invoked under Article 352 of the Constitution without imposing emergency.
Under the emergency provisions of the IT Rules, the Central Government had ordered the removal of clips and links related to the BBC documentary on January 21.
