No adinterim ex-parte injunction at this stage, says Delhi court on suit against publication, sale of Salman Khurshid's book

The Patiala House Court on Wednesday refused to grant ad-interim ex-parte injunction in a suit seeking direction to stop the publication, circulation and sale of former Union Minister Salman Khurshid's book 'Sunrise Over Ayodhya

The Patiala House Court on Wednesday refused to grant ad-interim ex-parte injunction in a suit 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 allegedly hurting sentiments of Hindus. Additional Civil Judge Preeti Parewa, after taking note of the submissions made by Plaintiff, said, "In the opinion of this Court, neither a primafacie case nor any exceptional circumstance for grant of adinterim exparte injunction in favour of the plaintiff is made out in the present case. Also, the plaintiff has failed to establish that the balance of convenience lies in his favour. Hence, the prayer for adinterim ex-parte relief is declined at this stage."

The Court also put up the matter for arguments and clarification on the maintainability of the present suit on November 18. "Author and Publisher have the right to write/ publish the book. The plaintiff has not been able to establish that inconvenience will be caused to him to avoid the book or alleged "offensive" excerpts of the book. On the other hand, the injunction would lead to hardship for the publishers and also curtail the right of speech and expression of the author," the court said further.

The plaintiff can always propagate against the book and can even publish a rebuttal to the alleged paragraphs which have hurt his sentiments. Also, only a copy of the excerpt has been placed on record and such excerpt cannot be read in exclusion/ isolation for interpreting the context in which the said statement has been made, the court noted. The suit had been filed by Hindu Sena President Vishnu Gupta through advocate Akshay Aggarwal and Sushant Prakash seeking direction to stop the publication, circulation, and sale of the book namely "Sunrise Over Ayodhya" over the rift of hurting the sentiments of the Hindus.

It stated that a passage in the book on page no 113, Chapter 6 with the title "The Saffron Sky" reads "Sanatan Dharam and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years". The petition alleged that the book launch event just before the upcoming assembly election in Uttar Pradesh is just a poor publicity stunt to polarize and gain the votes of minorities and also to polarize the voting percentage.

Former union minister Salman Khurshid got embroiled in controversy for "defaming and comparing Hinduism with terrorism" in his recent book "Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times". Khurshid's new book on the Ayodhya verdict was released last week. It explored the Apex Court's landmark judgment on the Ayodhya dispute. Senior Congress leader Khurshid has compared Hindutva to radical terrorist groups like "ISIS and Boko Haram". (ANI)

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