The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday restrained Al Jazeera news channel from telecasting a documentary on Hindutva politics in India, saying that “evil consequences” could occur if the film was released, Live Law reported.
The documentary titled, India...Who Lit the Fuse?, speaks about violence against Muslims in India. On June 3, the Doha-based channel had tweeted an Arabic version of the documentary.
A social activist named Sudhir Kumar filed a public interest litigation against the telecasting of the film in India. He claimed that the documentary has the potential to create disharmony among citizens and threaten the country’s integrity.
Kumar contended that the film is “likely to create hatred amongst different religious denominations and thereby destroy the secular fabric of the Indian State”. He claimed that he learnt from print and social media reports that the film portrays India’s Muslim community to be living in fear and presents a “disruptive narrative” that could create a sense of public hatred.
A High Court bench comprising Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Ashutosh Srivastava on Wednesday said that although the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, the right is subject to reasonable restrictions, according to Live Law. The judges also said that no certificate had been issued to Al Jazeera for unrestricted public exhibition of the documentary under the Cinematograph Act, 1952.
The High Court said that the petition deserves consideration as the allegations made in it have far-reaching consequences. “Considering the evil consequences that are likely to occur on the telecast/broadcast of the film in question, we are of the view that the broadcast/telecast of the film in question be deferred pending consideration of the cause in the present petition,” the bench stated.
The court directed the Centre to ensure that the film is not allowed to be telecast until the authorities examine its contents and the film receives certification that is necessary as per law.
The case will be heard next on July 6.
In January, a documentary by the BBC titled India: The Modi Question drew an immediate backlash from the Centre, which used emergency powers available under the Information Technology Rules, 2021, to issue directions to block clips of it from being shared.
The first part of the documentary alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “directly responsible for a climate of impunity” that led to the 2002 Gujarat riots and that he had ordered senior police officers not to intervene. Modi was the Gujarat chief minister when the riots took place.
More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the violence.
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