National Desk, 22 May: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was served with a summons by the Delhi High Court in connection with a defamation lawsuit brought by a Gujarat-based NGO which claimed that the BBC’s publication of a two-part documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi had damaged India’s reputation and its judiciary.
The defendants including BBC were served with summonses by the Justice Sachin Dutta bench on Monday and the case was continued till September.
For the plaintiff organisation, senior advocate Harish Salve testified and said that the documentary had defamed both India and the judiciary.
A summons was recently sent to the BBC by the Rohini court in Delhi in response to a request for an order prohibiting the defendants from publishing the BBC documentary about PM Modi.
Binay Kumar Singh has asked the Rohini district court to issue a decree enjoining the defendants, including their agents from publishing the two-volume documentary series “India: The Modi Question” or any other disparaging content about the plaintiff, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa HinduParishad (VHP) on the platforms of Wikimedia and the Internet Archive as well as any other online or offline platforms.
Additionally, he has requested that the defendants be given instructions to unconditionally apologies to the plaintiff, RSS and VHP for the libellous and defamatory material that was released in the two-volume documentary series.
The two-part documentary series “India: The Modi Question” had its broadcast on the BBC in January 2023. According to the BBC’s documentary, there are growing tensions between Prime Minister Modi and the Muslim minority in the nation as well as an alarming increase in hate crimes and radical politics in India that specifically target the Muslim community.