The Gujarat High Court today set aside Modi government's order to ban Jaswant Singh's book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah, saying that the notification by the authorities falls short of the requirements of the provisions of the law under which it was issued.
The state government had issued a notification under section 95 of the CrPC on August 19 banning Singh's book 'Jinnah-India, Partition, Independence' on the ground that it was against "national interest" and the contents were "misleading".
The three-member bench headed by Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan also said that the ban was a serious intrusion on fundamental rights of the citizens.
At the same time, the court said there is no restriction on the state government if it wants to come out with fresh notification.
In its order, the court said that the notification fails to mention the grounds on which the book should be banned. It also said that the notification is silent on how the reading of the book will affect tranquillity of the state.
The state government during the last hearing had urged the court to grant it time to come out with a fresh notification on proscribing the book.
During the last hearing, petitioners —Manishi Jani and Prakash Shah- had opposed the demand for time to issue a fresh notification and had sought an order on the present notification.
On the book ban issue on September one, the Supreme Court had issued notice to the Gujarat government on a petition by Singh and fixed the next date of hearing on September 8.
