Namaz disallowed at HUDA ground in Gurugram
Gurugram, May 4: A number of Muslims who reached the HUDA ground here for Friday prayers were turned back by police. They left without creating any ruckus.
A team of nearly 40 policemen, headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Anil Yadav, was deployed at the ground in Wazirabad area and told them to go and pray in a mosque.
The local administration has assured the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti that there would not be 'namaz' prayers at the ground without prior permission from authorities.
Controversy erupted two weeks ago when some locals objected to the namaaz, alleging that some people offering prayers chanted 'Pakistan Zindabad' and 'Hindustan Murdabad'.
On Thursday last week, six persons were arrested after a FIR was filed for allegedly disrupting the Muslim prayers at the ground in Sector 53 and threatening those offering prayers.
The FIR was registered against the five on charges of hurting religious feelings, disturbing religious worship and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code on a complaint by Wajid Khan and Nehru Yuva Sangathan Welfare Society Chairman Hazid Shahzad Khan.
Civil Judge Neetika Bharadwaj on Sunday granted bail to the six accused on technical grounds.
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Bombay High Court strikes down Centre's plan to set up Fact-Check Unit
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has struck down the central government's plan to establish a fact-checking unit (FCU) under the Information Technology Amendment Rules, 2023. The decision comes in response to a petition filed by standup comedian Kunal Kamra, challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre's move.
Justice A.S. Chandurkar, delivering the final verdict, declared that the proposed IT Amendment Rules violated key provisions of the Indian Constitution, namely Articles 14 (right to equality), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), and 19(1)(g) (right to profession).
“I have considered the matter extensively. The impugned rules are violative of Articles 14, 19, and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India,” Justice Chandurkar said in his judgment. He further remarked that terms like "fake, false, and misleading" in the IT Rules were "vague" and lacked a clear definition, making them unconstitutional.
This judgment followed a split verdict issued by a division bench of the Bombay High Court in January. The bench, consisting of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale, was divided in their opinions. While Justice Patel ruled that the IT Rules amounted to censorship and struck them down, Justice Gokhale upheld the rules, arguing that they did not pose a "chilling effect" on free speech, as the petitioners had claimed.
The matter was then referred to a third judge, leading to today's decision. The Supreme Court had previously stayed the Centre's notification that would have made the fact-checking unit operational, stating that the government could not proceed until the Bombay High Court ruled on the case.
Kunal Kamra and other petitioners had argued that the amendments posed unreasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. They contended that the provisions would lead to government-led censorship, effectively granting the government unchecked powers to determine what constitutes 'truth' online. The petitioners further claimed that such powers would turn the government into "prosecutor, judge, and executioner" in matters of online content.
With the Bombay High Court’s ruling, the Centre's move to create fact-checking units has been effectively halted, reaffirming the importance of protecting freedom of speech and expression in the digital space.
