Supreme Court to hear pleas against ban on BBC series on PM Modi today

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Feb 03, 2023: The Supreme Court is set to hear petitions challenging the Centre’s decision to ban the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

The bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh will hear the petitions by N Ram, Mahua Moitra, Prashant Bhushan and advocate ML Sharma.

 

A PIL was filed by advocate ML Sharma calling the ban on BBC documentary ’India: The Modi Question’ "malafide, arbitrary and unconstitutional". Another petition was filed by senior journalist N Ram and advocate Prashant Bhushan over taking down tweets with links to the BBC documentary.

Earlier, senior advocate CU Singh, appearing for N Ram and Prashant Bhushan, mentioned how their tweets were deleted allegedly by using emergency powers. He also said that students in Ajmer were rusticated for streaming the BBC documentary.

The two-part BBC series ’India: The Modi Question’ has stoked a controversy since it was first released. While the documentary claimed it investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was the chief minister of the state, the government has termed the series a “propaganda piece”.

Soon after its release, the Centre issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the BBC documentary, sources said.

The government’s move to block YouTube videos and Twitter posts came under severe criticism by the opposition parties, who called it “censorship”.

Courtesy: India Today