The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from arrest for two weeks to advocate Prashant Bhushan in an FIR lodged against him for his comment terming showing of TV serials 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata' on Doordarshan as serving of "opium" to the people during a lockdown to contain COVID-19.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to the Gujarat government and put the matter for consideration after two weeks.
During the hearing, the bench asked his counsel senior advocate Dushyant Dave for questioning people's choice to watch particular TV shows. Dave said he was concerned about the FIR only.
Bhushan sought quashing of the FIR registered against him in Gujarat’s Rajkot by a retired Army personnel, Jaydev Joshi for “hurting Hindu religious sentiments” by using objectionable language against Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Joshi accused Bhushan of using word 'opium" with Ramayana and Mahabharata in a tweet made on March 28 which, he alleged, has “hurt the sentiments of many Hindu people”.
“As crores starve & walk hundreds of miles home due to forced lockdown, our heartless ministers celebrate consuming & feeding the opium of Ramayana & Mahabharata to the people,” reads Bhushan’s tweet