Hc Lifts Ban On Screening 'Deshdrohi'

HC Lifts Ban On Screening 'Deshdrohi' 10 Jan 2009, 0448 hrs IST, TNN MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday lifted the Maharashtra government’s ban on the screening of Deshdrohi , a Hindi film about discrimination against north Indians in the city. The court held that ‘‘good governance demands not just rule by law, but rule by good law consistent with constitutional guarantees’’. The film will be released next Friday, said Ashok Sarogi, the film-maker’s lawyer. The state has not yet decided whether to appeal against the high court judgment. Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar called the state’s suspension order an ‘‘exercise of power which smacks of arbitrariness’’, and said the government could not trample on a citizen’s fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression for its ‘‘own convenience’’ and because of its ‘‘inability to handle law-and-order situations’’. The state can ban a film screening on grounds of ‘‘public order’’. However, the court held that there was ‘‘no material before the state to justify its claim that the film’s screening would lead to violence in parts of the city’’.

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