Gujarat Trust Withdraws Defamation Suit Against BBC Over Documentary on PM Modi

A Gujarat-based trust has withdrawn its defamation suit against UK broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and its Indian arm, in which it had accused the broadcaster of making false and defamatory insinuations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in its 2023 two-part documentary. With the trust, Justice for All, seeking the court’s permission to withdraw its suit on September 3, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela allowed it and dismissed the proceedings as withdrawn. Justice For All, a Gujarat-based registered society, had filed a “suit for damages”, “seeking permission to file as an indigent person”. The NGO had contended that the BBC’s two-episode documentary “contains content which casts a slur on the reputation of the country and also makes false and defamatory imputations and insinuations against the Prime Minister of India, the Indian Judiciary, and the Indian criminal justice system”. Who is an indigent person? As per provisions of the Civil Procedure Code, an indigent person is one who is without sufficient means to pay the court fee. Earlier, the suits filed by indigent persons were also referred to as “pauper suits”, and they can be filed only by those who are unable to pay on account of poverty. If an “indigent person” succeeds in the suit, court fees shall be recoverable by the State Government from any party ordered by the decree to pay the same. However, if an indigent person fails in the suit or the permission granted to him to sue as an indigent person is withdrawn, or the suit is withdrawn or dismissed, the indigent person will be required to pay the court fees. The case The court had issued notice to the respondent parties, including BBC’s UK arm of broadcasting as well as its India operations arm BBC World Service India Pvt. Ltd, in May 2023. The two-part documentary, India: the Modi Question, was released in January 2023. The documentary focused on the 2002 Gujarat riots and the response of Modi, then the CM, and his state government to the riots. The Centre had termed the documentary as a “propaganda piece that lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset”. The documentary was not made available in India by BBC. It had kicked up a political storm in India and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had directed YouTube and Twitter to take down links sharing the BBC documentary . It exercised emergency provisions of the Information Technology Rules, 2021, for allegedly casting “aspersions on the authority and credibility of the Supreme Court of India, sowing divisions among various communities, and making unsubstantiated allegations regarding actions of foreign governments in India”.