The Supreme Court has asked the Indian government to produce the "original records" behind the blocking of the BBC documentary "India: The Modi Question" in the next hearing that is scheduled to take place in April. The court was hearing a writ petition, filed by N Ram of The Hindu, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, on February 3, 2023. The petitioners seek to restrain the Indian government from blocking the documentary and to quash all orders that directly and indirectly block online access to it, according to Livelaw. Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh, representing the petitioners, pointed out that the Indian government used emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules, 2000, to 'block' the BBC documentary. He also said that the Centre has not made this "secret order" available in the public domain. The bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh issued a notice to the Indian government to file a counter affidavit within 3 weeks. Rejoinder, if any, can be filed within two weeks after the service of the counter affidavit, the bench noted. Background: Using its emergency powers, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued directions to block multiple videos of the documentary uploaded on YouTube by third parties. It also issued directions citing Rule 16(3) of the IT Rules and Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, for blocking over 50 Twitter URLs with links to Modi's documentary on January 20, 2023. The government has said that the documentary is “undermining…
