The Hindu : New Delhi News : Petition on controversial essay dismissed

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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Petition on controversial essay dismissed

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking a direction to withdraw the alleged controversial essay prescribed for B.A. second year History (Honours) students in Delhi University in which objectionable things had been written about Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman.

Dismissing the petition by Deenanath Batra, convener of non-government organisation Shiksha Bachao Anadolan through his counsel Monica Arora, a Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A.P. Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar said it was not the job of the Court to interfere in such matters.

Observing that the matter should be left to Delhi University to decide, the Bench said it would pass a reasoned judgment on the petition later.

The petitioner had submitted that that the essay titled “Culture in India: Ancient” had hurt the sentiments of Hindus by attributing repugnant conduct and behaviour to the four Ramayana characters. Seeking immediate withdrawal of the controversial chapter, the petitioner had submitted that he as well as many other Hindus was aggrieved by it.

Ms. Arora had further submitted that the chapter written by A.K. Ramanujan also violated Article 25 (Fundamental Right to Practice, Propagate and Profess one’s Religion) of the Constitution. Besides, the writer had also committed offences under various Section of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). However, the Court dismissed the arguments saying that the essay was not an opinionated write up but a scholarly analytical study of different versions of the Ramayana.

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