Delhi court refuses interim injunction against Salman Khurshid's book

A Delhi Court on Wednesday refused to grant ad-interim ex-parte injunction in a suit filed by Hindu Sena President Vishnu Gupta seeking direction to stop the publication, circulation, and sale of former Union Minister Salman Khurshid's book 'Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationhood in our times' for its alleged remarks on Hindutva.

Additional Civil Judge Preeti Parewa of Patiala House Court after taking note of the submissions made by the plaintiff's counsel Akshay Aggarwal said, the plaintiff had failed to establish the balance of convenience in his favour and declined the grant of interim relief.

The defendants herein have the right to publish the book, the judge noted in the order saying, "The plaintiff has not been able to establish that inconvenience will be caused to him to avoid the book or the alleged offensive excerpts of the book."

The court put up the matter for further arguments and clarification on the maintainability of the present suit on November 18.

"As a principle, ex-parte injunction could be granted only under exceptional circumstances," the order read.

As per the suit, the comment has been made in a chapter called "The Saffron Sky" on Page 113 of the book which reads as under -- "Sanatan dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints was being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards, a political version similar to jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years".

The Delhi High Court will hear on November 24 a similar plea filed by a Delhi-based lawyer seeking direction to ban the controversial book.

Days after Congress leader Salman Khurshid stirred the controversy by drawing a parallel between Hindutva and Jihadi Islam, his home at Nainital was vandalised and set on fire on Monday.

--IANS

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