New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (February 3) issued notice to the Union government on pleas challenging the blocking of the BBC documentary on Narendra Modi.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M.M. Sundresh said that the government must provide the original orders pertaining to the blocking at the next hearing, which will be in April, LiveLaw reported.
The bench was hearing two petitions – one filed jointly by journalist N. Ram, advocate Prashant Bhushan and Trinamool Congress MP Mahoua Moitra, and another by advocate M.L. Sharma.
Senior counsel C.U. Singh, representing the petitioners, asked the court to hear the petition again sooner, but the bench refused. “There needs to be reply ..rejoinder. Counter to be filed within 3 weeks from service of notice and 2 weeks thereafter for rejoinder,” the judges said, according to Bar and Bench.
The court also said that it cannot pass an interim order at the moment, before it has heard from the government. “Can we allow the interim prayer without hearing them? We direct respondents to produce original records in next date of hearing,” the bench said.
Justice Khanna also said that interim relief was not required because the documentary was being viewed anyway. Singh, however, said that universities were taking action against students who were organising screenings. “That is a separate issue…we are more on the legal aspect,” the judge replied, according to LiveLaw.
The Union government had used its emergency powers under the IT Rules to order YouTube and Twitter to take down posts that linked to the documentary. These Rules have earlier been challenged before the court in multiple petitions, and the case is pending.
Several students’ bodies across the country have attempted to screen the film, which features an unreleased UK government report which holds Modi “directly responsible” for the riots. Authorities have, in turn, clamped down by suspending students and ordering power to be cut during screenings.
India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had earlier said that the Indian government thinks “this is a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative.”
“The bias, the lack of objectivity, and frankly a continuing colonial mindset, is blatantly visible,” he added.
BBC has stood by its documentary, noting that it met the highest editorial standards.