New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has rejected the demand for a stay on Congress leader Salman Khurshid's new book "Sunrise Over Ayodhya." A bench headed by Chief Justice DN Patel said that the petitioner has not made writer Salman Khurshid a party.
During the hearing, the bench said told petitioner, "If you do not want to make senior advocate Salman Khurshid a party, who is also the author of the book, as your opposition party then do not file public interest litigation."
After that, the petitioner named Rakesh sought permission from the court to withdraw the plea, which was accepted by the court. Earlier, the single bench of the High Court had rejected the demand for a ban on Salman Khurshid's book. On November 25, a bench of Justice Yashwant Verma told the petitioner that, "if you do not agree with the author's words, then do not read his book." The petition was filed by advocate Vineet Jindal before the Single Bench.
Advocate Rajkishore Chaudhary, appearing for Vineet Jindal, had said, "Salman Khurshid is a Member of Parliament and a former Law Minister of the country. They are quite impressive. In such a situation, the people of the Hindu community will be more agitated by the things written in his book. Because of this, there will be a serious impact on harmony, peace, and security in the country and this is most likely to cause unrest."
A petition has also been filed at Patiala House Court in Delhi seeking a ban on Khurshid's book by Hindu Sena President Vishnu Gupta. Advocates Akshay Aggarwal and Sushant Prakash, appearing for the petitioner, have sought a ban on the publication, sale, and dissemination of Salman Khurshid's book. It has been said in the petition that when the petitioner read some excerpts from Khurshid's book, he found the book to be hurting Hindu sentiments.
The petition said that in chapter 6 of the book titled Saffron Sky, page number 113, Sanatan Hinduism has been compared with Jihadi Islamist organisations such as IS and Boko Haram. By doing this, Salman Khurshid has tried to malign the image of the Hindu religion. By doing this the sentiments of lakhs of crores of Hindus living all over the world including India have been hurt. Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution gives the right to freedom of expression to every citizen but it has certain conditions. The right to freedom of expression cannot be given at the cost of the harmony of the country and society.
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