SC refuses to grant protection from arrest to 'Tandav' team members
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant interim protection from arrest to the director, producer, writer and actor of web series 'Tandav' who were facing multiple cases of allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus in six states.
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A Bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice MR Shah also dismissed their pleas for quashing of the FIRs, stating, "You cannot play a role hurting religious sentiments of others".
The right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution was not absolute, it marked.
The Bench, however, issued notices on their petitions for clubbing of all the FIRs and them to one place.
A battery of senior advocates including, Fali Nariman, Mukul Rohatgi, Sidharth Luthra and Siddharth Agarwal---representing Amazon India Creative Head Aparna Purohit, Tandav producer Himanshu Mehra, director Ali Abbas Zafar, writer Gaurav Solanki and actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub tried their best to convince the court to give protection to the 'Tandav' from coercive action by police.
The 'Tandav' team members were booked for gate speech and hurting religious sentiments of Hindus under Sections 153-A, 295, 505(1)(b), 505(2) and 469 of IPC and certain provisions of the the Information Technology Act.
-PTC News
