Supreme Court to hear pleas challenging ban on BBC series on PM Modi today

The Supreme Court will hear pleas challenging the government's decision to ban the BBC series 'India: The Modi Question' on PM Modi. The bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh will hear the petitions by N Ram, Mahua Moitra, Prashant Bhushan and advocate ML Sharma.  

The Supreme Court is set to hear petitions challenging the Centre's decision to ban the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. The petitions filed by N Ram, Mahua Moitra, Prashant Bhushan, and attorney ML Sharma will be heard by a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh.

Since it was initially broadcast, the two-part BBC programme "India: The Modi Question" has stirred up controversy. The administration has referred to the series as "propaganda piece," despite the fact that the documentary stated it looked into specific areas of the Gujarat riots in 2002 when Modi was the state's chief minister.

The Centre requested that Twitter and YouTube remove links to the divisive documentary on January 21. The two-part BBC programme has been referred to as "propaganda work aimed to peddle a discredited narrative" by India. The Opposition parties harshly criticised the government's decision to control Twitter messages and YouTube videos, calling it "censorship."

The two-part BBC programme is described as a "look into tensions between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India's Muslim minority, probing accusations about his complicity in the riots that claimed over a thousand lives in 2002."

Despite being Gujarat's Chief Minister at the time of the riots in February 2002, PM Modi was found not guilty of any crime, according to an investigation ordered by the Supreme Court. In a report written ten years after the riots, the Special Investigation Team cleared PM Modi, finding "no prosecutable evidence."