Want to see records blocking BBC docu, says SC

NT Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the central government to produce original records relating to its decision to block a BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh issued notices to the government and others on pleas filed by veteran journalist N Ram, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan and lawyer M L Sharma. The matter is listed for the next hearing in April. At the outset, the bench asked the petitioners why they did not approach the high court in the matter.

Senior advocate CU Singh, appearing for Ram and the others, submitted that the government has invoked the emergency powers under the Information Technology (IT) Rules to block the documentary. He said he was seeking a direction to the Centre to place on record all the original records. The Supreme Court said it is also a fact that people have been accessing the documentary.

One of the petitioners has also alleged that the ban on the documentary 'India: The Modi question' was "malafide and unconstitutional". Ram and others, in their pleas, have sought a direction to restrain the government from curbing their right to "receive and disseminate information" on the documentary