SC to hear PIL challenging 'ban' on BBC documentary on Feb 6

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said it will list a PIL challenging the 'ban' on the BBC documentary, 'India: The Modi Question', for hearing on February 6.

Advocate M L Sharma, who filed the petition, mentioned it before a bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud. Sharma's plea seeks quashing of the January 21, 2023, order of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting "banning" the documentary.

He has termed the decision "illegal, mala fide, arbitrary and unconstitutional." The question, he said is "whether without having an Emergency declared under Article 352 of the Constitution of India by the President, emergency provisions can be invoked by the Central government?"The counsel sought urgent hearing saying people were getting arrested.

The CJI, however, said it will come up on Monday and told Sharma, who is a recurrent public interest litigant, "You can speak to the media elsewhere."

The court also agreed to list for hearing a related petition by journalist N Ram, advocate Prashant Bhushan and certain others.

Appearing for the petitioners, Senior Advocate C U Singh said the Centre had invoked emergency powers under the Information Technology Act to get the links removed from social media, that tweets by Ram and Bhushan were taken down, and that students were being rusticated for screening the documentary.

Though the orders are not yet in public domain, an official tweet said the blocking of the documentary was as per emergency powers, he added.

Petitioner Sharma also wants the court to examine the documentary and act against persons who were directly and indirectly responsible for the 2002 Gujarat riots.