Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 3: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre to produce the original record of its decision to take down tweets sharing links to the controversial BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ before the court.
Supreme Court issues notice to the Centre on plea seeking direction to restrain the Central government from censoring the BBC documentary relating to the 2002 Gujarat Riots.
SC seeks response from the Centre within three weeks. SC posts the matter for hearing in April. pic.twitter.com/65nLjc71Eh
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2023
A bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice MM Sundresh gave three weeks time to the Centre to file its response at the next hearing in April.
The court was dealing with two separate petitions including one filed by advocate ML Sharma and the second filed jointly by MP Mahua Moitra, journalist N Ram and advocate Prashant Bhushan.
The instant the issue was taken, Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh, who is representing the joint PIL by journalist N Ram and others, submitted that it was a case where the Centre called on the emergency powers under the IT Rules to block the documentary.
Last week, Sharma presented the matter before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for urgent listing.
Sharma’s petition terms the Centre’s ban on the two-part documentary to be deceitful, unnecessary and unconstitutional.
The petition argues that the citizens have the right to see news, facts and reports on the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Centre’s decision has deprived citizens’ right to information under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
Notably, the Centre had issued directives to block multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the controversial BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ on PM Modi on January 21.
The Indian government had banned it from being shown in the country due to its sensitive nature. The documentary questions Narendra Modi’s conduct in the riots, who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002. The documentary has also been taken off YouTube for its disruptive content.
