A Gujarat-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) has withdrawn a defamation suit it filed against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) three years ago in the Delhi high court, accusing the broadcaster of defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian judiciary by airing the documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ in January 2023. It sought permission to file a fresh suit.
He added that the notice issued in the matter related to an application seeking permission to sue as an indigent person, and not to the defamation suit itself. The court dismissed the suit as withdrawn. The documentary cited a previously unpublished United Kingdom foreign ministry report that questioned Modi’s actions during the 2002 riots when he was the Gujarat chief minister. The lawyer representing Justice on Trial, the NGO, told a bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela on September 3 that he had instructions to withdraw the suit. In its suit, the NGO sought ₹ 10,000 damages for the loss of reputation and goodwill caused to the Prime Minister, the Union and the Gujarat governments, and the people of India. The suit said the governmental and judicial response to the 2002 riots was to ensure that the rule of law is restored, and all people involved, regardless of their status or position, bear the consequences.
Because it did not present facts objectively, it called the documentary defamatory.
The government dismissed it as “propaganda” and a reflection of the “colonial mindset”. “He states that he is under instructions to withdraw the…suit with liberty to file fresh suit for the same cause of action,” the court said.
