There are 2 appeals got filed in the supreme court against the BBC documentary, today accepting these pleas supreme court sends notices to the government. One appeal is filed by Trinamool congress MP Mahua Moitra, veteran journalist N Ram, and lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan and another plea is filed by advocate ML Sharma.
ML Sharma said this as “malafide, arbitrary and unconstitutional.” Last week advocate CU Singh appeared for the 3 petitioners, which is now considered a lead appeal. “The centre has invoked emergency powers under IT rules to remove the links about the documentary from social media”
Is this ban against the law?
The lead appeal says “all citizens including the press have the fundamental right to view, form an informed opinion, critique, report on, and lawfully circulate the contents of the documentary.”
According to them it is a violation of fundamental rights and requested to overturn the decision of the documentary ban. This plea will be listened to by the bench of justice Sanjiv Khanna and MM sundresh. They send notice to the central government and present the original recording before the court. The next date of the plea is in April 2023.
The petitioners are saying this is unlawful to ban it in India. And also asked if this ban has been executed following the law. After the ban people are still watching it with illegal mediums. The government has taken against them, and many students got rusticated who are playing and promoting it, and tweets sharing information about it also got blocked.
This documentary is about the 2002 Gujarat riots, and PM Narendra Modi’s role in it, who was chief minister of Gujarat at that time. The petition said that this documentary has facts that can be used to give justice to the victims of the 2002 riots. And also asked if this ban is within the law and not a violation of human rights.
Opposition parties are already trying to target Modi and Bjp on this matter. As elections in 9 states are on the way this year followed by the Loksabha election next year, if the supreme court gives a decision against the government, it will benefit the opposition parties and maybe can result in a change of the government too as the petition is not just about being illegal. It is also about fundamental rights.