The Delhi High Court on Friday sought former President Pranab Mukherjee’s response to a petition that seeks to have a few portions in his 2016 book deleted because they allegedly hurt Hindu sentiments. The petitioners want all references to the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya deleted from Mukherjee’s Turbulent Years 1980-1996, PTI reported.
Social worker UC Pandey and a group of lawyers filed the petition in the High Court after a trial court rejected their plea on the grounds that there was no cause of action. On Friday, the petitioners’ lawyer, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, argued in the High Court that the trial court had wrongly dismissed their plea in November 2016 as there was cause of action when the book was published and also after the two-month deadline, which the petitioners had set to have the portions on the Babri Masjid demolition deleted, expired on September 5, 2016, The Indian Express reported.
Jain had argued before the trial court that a civil case can be filed against the president during his tenure if the suit is related to work in his “personal capacity”. The counsel for Mukherjee, who was the president when the trial court proceedings were on, had opposed the plea and argued that the suit was not maintainable.
At the Delhi High Court hearing on Friday, Justice Pratibha M Singh issued a notice to the former president and scheduled the next hearing for July 30. The judge has recused herself from the case, ANI reported.
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