Gujarat to issue new notification banning Jaswant's book

After its notification banning Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah faced flak for not giving detailed reasons, the Gujarat government today told the High Court it proposes to come out with a fresh communication superseding the old one which is under legal challenge.

The move by the Narendra Modi government was made known in an affidavit filed before the court by Dhananjay Dwivedi, additional home secretary, who claimed the first notification was issued only after the book was perused immediately after its release.

The affidavit further stated that mentioning the grounds for which the notification was issued, would frustrate the very objective of issuing the ban. And therefore, the state government has refrained from stating elaborate grounds of its opinion, it added.

The government had issued a notification on August 19 banning Singh's book Jinnah-India Independence Partition in which it was said that the book was against 'national interest' and that the contents were 'misleading'.

In reply to a petition by two social activists challenging the ban, the government also sought time to issue a new notification under section 95 of the CrPC, including the grounds of its opinion why the book should be banned.

The earlier notification had not given any grounds for banning the book or not even mentioned the objectionable portion of the same.

However, the petitioners opposed the move by the state government and requested the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan, hearing the case, to pass an order on the present notification and not grant any time to the government. The court accepted the request and reserved the order.