BREAKING - 'Tandav' Row : Supreme Court Grants Interim Protection From Arrest To Amazon Prime Video Head Aparna Purohit

The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest to Amazon Prime Video's India head Aparna Purohit in the FIR registered by UP Police over alleged hurting of religious sentiments by the web series 'Tandav'.A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy observed that the protection from arrest will be subject to the petitioner cooperating with the investigation and appearing before the police as and when summoned.The bench passed this interim order while issuing notice on Purohit's petition challenging the refusal of pre-arrest bail by the Allahabad High Court. The bench took note of the submission made on behalf of the petitioner that she is cooperating with another FIR registered in Lucknow, and that she had no role in the writing or the production of the series.New OTT Rules lack teeth, bench observesThe bench also expressed dissatisfaction about the new rules framed by the Union to regulate OTT platforms. Justice Bhushan told the Solicitor General that the new rules "lack teeth" as there is no provision for prosecution or fine. Without a legislation, there cannot be effective control, Justice Bhushan remarked.The Solicitor General submitted that the new rules were brought as a balance between "no-censorship and internal self-regulation". The SG agreed to produce a better draft of the rules for the consideration of the court.Indicating that the issue of OTT regulation will also be considered in the instant case, the bench added Union of India as a party. The bench recorded its observations about the new rules in the order as follows :"One of the issues, which have been cropped up in the facts of the present case, is regarding control and regulation of platform on which web-series are released. Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, learned senior counsel informed us that the Government of India has issued notification dated 25.02.2021 and introduced Rules namely The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.A perusal of the Rules indicate that the Rules are more and more in the form of guidelines and have no effective mechanism for either screening or taking appropriate action for those who violates the guidelines.Mr. Tushar Mehta, the learned Solicitor General submits that the Government shall consider and take appropriate steps for regulation or legislation as may be found fit by the Government and the same shall be placed before the Court"Yesterday, the bench had remarked that screening of OTT content was necessary. "In fact, some platforms even show pornography", the bench had remarked while asking Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to circulate the new Information Technology Rules, 2021, which were notified last week. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Purohit, submitted today that Prime Video was not showing any "pornography", and the platform had many good films and series. Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, also appearing for Purohit, informed the bench that the controversial scenes of the show were deleted and the company has issued a public apology as well.Rohatgi also suggested Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to watch the 'Tandav' series and take a view if it was violating any law. At this, the SG replied "By pornography, they don't mean it in the actual sense"."You can watch 100s of movies(in Prime Video), you will not find anything pornographic. I myself watch a movie every evening", Rohatgi said. Luthra added in a lighter vein that the SG may not be getting time to watch movies.Rohatgi submitted that the High Court erred in denying bail overlooking the fact that the Lucknow bench of the High Court had granted interim protection in an FIR registered at Lucknow. However, in the instant case(registered at Greater Noida), the HC refused anticipatory bail making an incorrect observation that Purohit had not been cooperating with the investigation, he added.'Tandav' hurt religious sentiments, Allahabad HCThe Allahabad High Court had on 25th February denied Pre-arrest bail to Commercial Head of Amazon Prime Video, Aparna Purohit, in the ongoing investigation against the web series 'Tandav'.At the outset, referring to allegedly objectionable scene of the Series, wherein Devakinandan (Lord Krishna) is talking to another character Kailash (Lord Shiva), the Court remarked, "These characters are part of religious faith of majority community of India and their use by filmmakers in offensive way is bound to hurt the sentiments of the majority community of the country." The Court has even remarked that the alluding to Lord Rama gaining popularity on social media is a clear pointer to the dispute regarding the construction of Lord Ram's temple.Further, the Court has also remarked that the use of the word "TANDAV" as the name of the movie could be offensive to the majority of the people of this country since this word is associated with a particular act assigned to Lord Shiva ...

BREAKING - 'Tandav' Row : Supreme Court Grants Interim Protection From Arrest To Amazon Prime Video Head Aparna Purohit

Radhika Roy

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