The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined interim protection from arrest for director, actors of the Amazon Prime Video web series Tandav. The top court was hearing a bunch of petitions seeking quashing of criminal complaints lodged in various states against Ali Abbas Zafar, the director of the web series, and others for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments.
The case was heard by a bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, RS Reddy and MR Shah. "Your 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, a report in the Hindustan Times stated.
The top court was hearing a bunch of petitions seeking quashing of criminal complaints lodged in various states against the web series. Multiple cases were registered under various IPC sections, including 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts,
intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).
Created and directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, the nine-part political drama features an ensemble cast headlined by Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Kumud Mishra. The cast and crew of Tandav had issued an unconditional apology if their fictional show had “unintentionally” hurt sentiments.
