SunstarTV Bureau: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear Amazon Prime Video’s head of India Originals’ Aparna Purohit challenging the Allahabad High Court order denying her anticipatory bail in connection with FIRs against her over the web series ‘Tandav’. Her plea has been listed before a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy.
The Allahabad High Court had on February 25 rejected her anticipatory bail plea stating that “…the applicant had not been vigilant and has acted irresponsibly making her open to criminal prosecution in permitting streaming of a movie which is against the fundamental rights of the majority of citizens of this country and therefore, her fundamental right of life and liberty cannot be protected by grant of anticipatory bail to her in the exercise of discretionary powers of this court.”
“The irresponsible conduct against the inherent mandate of the Constitution of India by anyone affecting the fundamental rights of the large number of citizens cannot be acquiesced to only because of the tendering of unconditional apology after committing the alleged act of crime and indiscretion,” the court order said. The court said that the reference to the disclaimer about the show being fictional “cannot be considered to be a ground for absolving the applicant of permitting the streaming of an objectionable movie online”.
The HC also said Purohit was granted interim protection from arrest on February 11 by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, “but she was not co-operating with the investigation” and that “…this conduct of the applicant shows that she has scant respect for the law of the land and her conduct further disentitles her to any relief from this court, since co-operation with investigation is a necessary condition for grant of anticipatory bail”.