'Consider Grievances Raised' : Calcutta HC Disposes PIL Against Amazon Web Series 'Paatal Lok'

The Calcutta High Court has disposed of a Public Interest Litigation against Web Series "Paatal Lok"  with a direction to consider the grievance raised in this regard and pass appropriate orders.

One Pranay Rai approached the High Court alleging that certain portions of  "Paatal Lok' Web Series aired in Amazon Prime are defamatory of the Nepalese Community and projects the Nepalese community in a very bad light.

The petitioner, during the course of hearing, submitted that he has filed a representation ventilating his grievance before the authority who has been arrayed as '8th respondent'  in the writ petition. (The identity of the 8th respondent is not discernible from the order.)

"We leave all issues open for the 8th respondent to decide. The 8th respondent shall take a reasoned decision on the representation made by the petitioner, in accordance with law, after giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and the respondents herein and to any other party as the 8th respondent may deem fit and proper and shall dispose of the representation of the petitioner as soon as possible and preferably within a period of four weeks from the date of communication of this order to the 8th respondent.", the court ordered.

The court clarified that the '8th respondent' shall pass orders on the representation only if he is satisfied that he is the appropriate authority having jurisdiction to entertain and determine the representation. The bench said that it has not gone into issues whether certain portions of the said web series are required to be blocked or as to whether  the '8th respondent' has jurisdiction to entertain the representation. 

Last month, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had issued notices to the Central and the State Governments in a plea seeking to regulate the content of web series "Pataal Lok". The notice was issued in a petition filed by practicing Advocate of the High Court Gurdeepinder Singh Dhillon, who alleged that the content of the show is "illegal, antisocial, vulgar, abusive, minority oppressive and anti-national".

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