Supreme Court opinion at center of appeals against blocking of BBC series

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court today issued an opinion to the Center regarding appeals challenging the banning of a controversial BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and allegations relating to the 2002 riots in Gujarat.

Hearing two motions, the Supreme Court sought the original recording of the order removing the documentary from the public domain.

The petitions challenge the use of emergency powers to block the documentary and remove the social media links. The Center never officially publicized the blocking order, according to a petition by lawyer ML Sharma, calling the ban on the two-part documentary “evil, arbitrary and unconstitutional”.

A separate petition has been filed by veteran journalist N Ram, lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan and Trinamool Congressman Mahua Moitra.

On January 21, the Centre, using the emergency provisions under the 2021 Information Technology Rules, issued instructions to block several YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the controversial BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question”.