No relief to 'Tandav' team, SC stays Bombay HC order on groping

The makers and an actor of Amazon Prime web series "Tandav", who appealed for protection against arrest, on Wednesday, failed to get any relief from the Supreme Court. The court refused to allow interim protection and asked the petitioners to approach the High Courts. The case was heard by a bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, RS Reddy and MR Shah. Today, as lawyers argued the question of freedom of speech and expression, Justice MR Shah said, "Right to freedom of speech is not absolute. " "You cannot play the role of character that hurts the sentiments of a community," the bench said.

At least three cases have been lodged in Uttar Pradesh against the makers of the series, alleging inappropriate depiction of UP Police personnel and deities, and adverse portrayal of a character playing the role of prime minister. Similar cases have been lodged in other states including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Delhi and Chandigarh. The makers have been accused of "hurting religious sentiments", "promoting religious enmity" and "defiling a place of worship". In their petition, they also said facing prosecution in various states involved harassment and wanted the intervention of the top court to transfer the First Information Reports to Mumbai. The court has agreed to consider the second request of the petitioners, who were  being represented by senior Lawyers Fali Nariman, Mukul Rohatgi and Sidharth Luthra.

In another case, the SC on Wednesday stayed the Bombay High Court order which acquitted a man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act saying "groping a minor's breast without "skin-to-skin contact" cannot be termed as sexual assault".A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian stayed the high court order after Attorney General KK Venugopal mentioned the matter. The top court also issued notice to Maharashtra government and permitted the AG to file an appeal against the January 19 verdict of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. The high court had modified the order of a sessions court, which had sentenced a 39-year-old man to three years of imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.