Case against ‘Tandav’: Actors, makers may face arrest as SC declines protection

Web series Tandav actors makers including Saif Ali Khan and Ali Abbas Zafar likely face arrest after Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down their pleas for protection from arrestA three judge bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan only issued notice on clubbing of various FIRs registered across the country and asked actor Zeeshan Ayyub and others to move high courts for quashing of FIRs or bail in the mattersSenior Advocate Fali S Nariman requested for an order of no coercive action against the cast and producers of the web series However the bench refused to grant relief Approach high court said the top courtDuring the hearing the apex court noted that it may consider the request for clubbing the FIRs but it cannot take the power of the high court under CrPCThe observation was made after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi requested the court to grant the petitioners no coercive step order club the FIRS and issue notice to the partiesAhead of lunch the top court had orally observed that freedom of speech was not absolute during its hearing on pleas seeking stay on FIRs against actors and producers of Tandav web series on Amazon PrimeJustice Bhushan had expressed its disinclination to pass any direction to stay the FIRs Senior advocates Fali S Nariman Mukul Rohatgi and Siddharth Luthra cited the top court judgment in Arnab Goswami case to seek relief in the matterLuthra argued that the director of the web series is being harassed Is this way liberty should be protected in the country and FIRs are being filed across the country he added The bench observed that the right to freedom of speech is not absolute and it is subjected to restrictionsNariman submitted that apologies have been made and despite that several FIRs have been filed in six states Justice Bhushan replied You want the FIRs to be quashed then why cant you approach the High CourtsNariman said the web series makers have removed the objectionable content and still there are cases being filed against them The top court questioned why petitioners have moved the court under Article 32The bench said the police can file closure reports too if apologies have been madeRohatgi cited Arnab Goswami case to move the top court after a violation of Article 191a He added people get offended with anything and everything these days Please protect us with no coercive steps We deleted content without any protest Scenes have been deleted Its a political satire argued RohatgiRohatgi submitted that people are so sensitive in this country freedom to speech under then 19 1a would be destroyedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever