New Delhi, February 03, 2023 (PPI-OT):The Indian Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the government on a tranche of petitions challenging its decision to block public access to a BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots. The apex court noting that people have been accessing the blocked BBC documentary asked the government to file its reply within three weeks. It also directed the government to produce original records relating to the order to take down tweets sharing links to the documentary on the next date of hearing.

The order was passed by the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh while hearing the petitions by Member of Parliament from Trinamool Congress Mahua Moitra, journalist N Ram, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan and advocate ML Sharma. Last month, the Modi government directed social media platforms Twitter and YouTube to block links to the documentary “India: The Modi Question”. In the two-part documentary series, the BBC claims investigated certain aspects relating to the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state.

The Modi regime’s move to block YouTube videos and Twitter posts came under severe criticism by opposition parties, who called it “censorship”. Student bodies and youth wings of opposition parties organised screenings of the documentary on college campuses and in public spaces in various states.

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