BBC Documentary: Supreme Court to Hear Pleas Against Centre’s Ban on Feb 6

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear on February 6 the PIL challenging the Centre's decision to ban the controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Two separate petitions were filed against the ban on BBC documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question’. The Advocate ML Sharma has called the ban malafide, arbitrary and unconstitutional. 

Another petition filed by journalist N Ram and advocate Prashant Bhushan on taking down their tweets with links to the BBC documentary. 

The matter came up before the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr DY Chandrachud. The counsel Chander Uday Singh for Ram and Bhushan told the court that their tweets were taken down using emergency powers. 

While Sharma’s plea stated that the documentary film was banned from viewership in India by any means under Rule 16 of IT Act 2021 and it sought a direction for quashing the January 21 order.

Notably, the BBC documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question,’ focuses on “the tensions between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the country’s Muslim minority”, as well as “investigating claims” concerning his leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots. 

The documentary sparked outrage in India after BBC aired a two-part series targeting PM Modi’s tenure as the then Gujarat Chief Minister during Godhra riots in 2002. The government has dismissed the documentary as a biased ‘propaganda piece’. 

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