NEW DELHI: The high court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking direction to Centre and the Delhi government to ban the release of Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood In Our Times, a book written by Salman Khurshid. The High Court described the petitioner as a “chance taking petitioner” who had filed the plea for “publicity”. “We will not give you any chance.
These are all chance-taking petitioners. It is for publicity,” said a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh. The HC also pulled up the petitioner for not making the author of the book or publication house a party to the plea. “You want a complete ban on the book but have not made the author a party. Why are you feeling so shy and not joining the author as a party?” the bench said.
Later, the petitioner’s counsel sought permission to withdraw the petition and file a fresh one. The court allowed him to withdraw the petition. “He has no courage to join Salman Kurshid as a party. What type of PIL he will argue? If you are so much worried about the name of the author or the senior advocate, you should not have filed the PIL. These are blackmailing or publicity petitions,” the bench said.