Court rejects plea seeking ban on satirical booklet on Modi

A court here has rejected a petition seeking a ban on a booklet titled 'Namo Namah: Rajneeti Ka Naya Bhakti Kal', a satirical take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.

The court of city civil and sessions judge A M Memon, in an order passed Monday, dismissed the petition moved by one Kartavya Shah, seeking a temporary injunction on the distribution and sale of the booklet on the ground that it tarnishes the image of Modi and Shah.

While rejecting the petition, the court observed that "the plaintiff has not been able to establish his prima facie case by clearly disclosing his locus standi or cause of action to file the present suit".

Jayesh Shah, the author of the booklet, is a senior member of the Congress and Ahmedabad-based J R Enterprise is its publisher.

The booklet depicts Modi and Shah as "jamura" (sidekick) and "madari" (juggler) respectively, which the petitioner argued were likely to "affect the public at large adversely".

The petitioner had argued that ...