SC grants protection to lawyer Prashant Bhushan against coercive action in a case

The Supreme Court Friday granted protection to activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan from any coercive action in an FIR lodged against him at Rajkot in Gujarat for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the Hindus.

The FIR was lodged by former Army personnel Jaidev Rajnikant Joshi at Rajkot alleging that Bhushan hurt religious sentiments of Hindus by tweeting against re-telecast of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata serials on DD during the coronavirus lockdown in the country.

While granting interim relief and protection to Bhushan, the apex court said, "anybody can watch anything on TV" and questioned as to how one can ask people not to watch a particular programme.

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna, in the proceedings conducted through video conferencing, issued notice to the Gujarat Police and listed Bhushan's plea after two weeks.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Bhushan, sought quashing of the FIR lodged against the activist lawyer and sought interim protection against any coercive measure for the time being.

In his complaint, Joshi had accused Bhushan of using word 'opium' for Ramayana and Mahabharata in a tweet on March 28 which “hurt the sentiments of many Hindu people”

“As crores starve & walk hundreds of miles home due to forced lockdown, our heartless ministers celebrate consuming & feeding the opium of Ramayana & Mahabharata to the people,” reads Bhushan’s tweet.

Dave said he was not on the issue of as to what people should watch on TV, but was arguing against the registration of the FIR. Bhushan had filed the plea on Thursday and it was listed a day after the bench, the registry sources said.