'Misconceived, no merit': SC dismisses Hindu Sena plea to ban BBC

Court separately seeks centre's response on petitions challenging orders blocking BBC documentary's screening

The Supreme Court dismissed on Friday a petition to ban the BBC for its documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots, calling it "completely misconceived".

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh said the public interest litigation (PIL) by the right wing Hindu Sena group had no merit and the court cannot impose censorship.

"Completely misconceived; how can this be argued also? You want us to put complete censorship. What is this?" the bench asked Pinky Anand, a senior advocate who represented the Sena. Anand requested that her client should be heard for its PIL against BBC from airing the documentary 'India: The Modi Question'.

"Same thing happened in India's Daughter. We have Kashmir…we had Mumbai riots. Let it be heard," she said, referring to past censorship petitions.

The Court, however, said, "Let us not waste any more time. The plea has no merit. Thus, dismissed."

The petition filed by Vishnu Gupta, president of Hindu Sena, and Beerendra Kumar Singh, a farmer, also sought a probe into BBC for the broadcaster’s alleged ‘anti-India reporting’.

Separately, the court sought a response from the central government on separate petitions challenging orders blocking the documentary’s screening.

Advocate ML Sharma, who had filed a petition, called the government’s ban on the documentary arbitrary and unconstitutional.

Another petition has been filed by senior journalist N Ram and advocate Prashant Bhushan challenging the government’s decision to take down tweets related to the BBC documentary.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and JB Pardiwala took note of the submissions of ML Sharma and senior advocate CU Singh seeking urgent listing of their PILs on the issue.

The Centre had last week directed Twitter and YouTube to block links to the documentary, which it said was a “propaganda piece” that lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset.