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SC To Hear Bunch Of Pleas Against Centre’s Ban On Screening Of BBC Documentary On PM Modi

On Friday, the Supreme Court will consider a number of petitions opposing the Center’s decision to forbid the broadcast of the contentious BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots, which casts Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a negative light. A bench made up of justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh will hear petitions brought by prominent journalist N Ram, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, attorney Prashant Bhushan, as well as another plea brought by attorney M L Sharma, according to the cause list posted on the high court’s website.

India: The Modi Question, a two-part BBC documentary, has been making headlines ever since it was released. The government has disregarded it as a slanted “propaganda work.”

Sharma argued in his lawsuit that the BBC programme about the Gujarat riots was made available for viewing by the general public. However, under rule 16 of the IT Act 2021, viewing of the documentary in India has been outlawed owing to “fear of truth.” Sharma requested in his petition that the IT Act ruling from January 21 be reversed since it was extra vires the Indian Constitution and was unlawful, mala fide, and arbitrary.

In his argument, the petitioner said that the BBC documentary may be utilised for legal justice because it accurately depicted the facts and included authentic recordings of the riot victims from 2002 as well as other concerned individuals who were involved in the scenario of the riots. Journalist N. Ram, Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, and lawyer Prashant Bhushan have all petitioned against having their tweets including links to the documentary taken down.

“According to Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution, the information in the BBC documentary and the tweets from Petitioners Nos. 2 (Bhushan) and 3 (Moitra) are protected. The limits listed in Article 19(2) or those imposed by Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000, do not apply to the material of the documentary series “According to the lawsuit Ram and others filed.

Ram and others stated in their petition that the Supreme Court’s ruling and other government actions, as well as criticism of those actions, do not constitute a violation of India’s sovereignty and integrity.

The plea continued, “Censoring the petitioners’ right to free speech and expression by the executive through opaque orders and proceedings is manifestly arbitrary as it frustrates the petitioners’ fundamental right to effectively seek judicial review of administrative actions under Articles 226 and 32 of the Constitution of India in violation of the fundamental structure of the Constitution of India.”

The central government has outlawed the broadcasting of the BBC documentary as well as the dissemination of its connections via online forums and social media. It has nevertheless been screened in some campuses around the nation despite the Center’s ban.

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