The state government is likely to file a reply or submit a ‘modified notification’ in court, when hearing of the PIL challenging the ban imposed on Jaswant Singh’s book
The state government is likely to file a reply or submit a ‘modified notification’ in court, when hearing of the PIL challenging the ban imposed on Jaswant Singh’s book resumes in the Gujarat high court on Tuesday.
The state government had issued a notification on August 19 banning the book, ‘Jinnah-India, Partition, Independence’, written by expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh. Incidentally, Singh’s petition challenging the Gujarat government’s ban order is also to be heard in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. On Monday, a special 3-judge bench of the Gujarat high court, comprising chief justice KS Radhkrishnan, justice Akil Kureshi and justice KM Thaker, took up the PIL for final hearing, after refusing the state government’s request for two days’ time to file a reply.
“The high court can’t go beyond the content of the notification and look into the affidavit,” said chief justice Radhakrishnan. “The Supreme Court has observed that the validity of the notification is to be tested only on the bases stated in the notification and not otherwise.” The chief justice’s observation came after the additional advocate general, Tushar Mehta, sought time to file a reply.
The counsel for the petitioners, Anand Yagnik, challenged the validity of the notification, and argued that it was issued without giving reasonable grounds. He further argued that the government had banned the book without reading it and without any application of mind. He contended that the notification does not point out which portions of the book are objectionable. As a result, it was not possible for any reasonable man to determine from the notification whether something written in the book was objectionable, Yagnik said.
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