Gujarat Govt to Issue Fresh Notification to Ban Jaswant’s Book
With the Supreme Court having already issued a notice to Gujarat government on ban on Jaswant Singh’s book and Gujarat High Court set to decide legality of the ban today, the state government is seeking time to issue a fresh notification, indicating that the original notification may not stand legal scrutiny.
The state government has filed an affidavit in the Gujarat High Court saying it wants to issue a fresh ban notification superseding its earlier notification.
However, the petitioners who have appealed against the ban said that the government found something wrong with the original notification and this led to filing of affidavit.
“The state government asking for more time to file fresh notification means there is some lacunae with the present notification. That’s moral victory for us,” says petitioner Prakash Shah.
In earlier notification, the state government said that the Jinnah: India-Partition, Independence has been banned because it is against national interests, without saying how it came to this view.
“We believe that the request of the State of Gujarat to come out with a new notification and indirectly permit the old notification to continue, has been turned down,” says Anand Yagnik, advocate for the petitioners.
A Gujarat High Court three-judge Special Bench headed by Chief Justice KS Radhakrishnan and including justices Akil Kureshi and KM Thaker is likely to pronounce its order on Wednesday.
