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 the booklet, which runs into 48 pages, mocks Modi and Shah "due to which the said two persons are likely to be tainted as funny not only in India, but in foreign countries as well".

In his defence, the author argued that the booklet was not likely to cause any "legal injury" to the petitioner, and that a local court had rejected a similar petition filed on his earlier booklet titled "Fenkuji Havey Delhi Ma," by one Narsinhbhai Solanki.

He said he had approached the high court, but later withdrawn his petition.

Publication of the Hindi version of the booklet titled 'Fenkuji Ab Delhi Mein' was also challenged by one Yogesh Doshi in the Gujarat High Court. However, he had later withdrawn his plea.