Reminding the Modi government of the “fundamental rights of its citizens”, the Gujarat High Court today quashed the government notification banning expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s book on Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

The bench of Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justices Akil Kureshi and K M Thaker, ruling on a PIL, said the notification banning Jinnah — India, Partition, Independence lacked “thinking” and “understanding” and may have been issued without reading or comprehending the book’s contents.

“It is difficult to believe that the author of the notification has really read or comprehended what the author of the book has to say,” the bench observed. The ban notification says the contents of the book are highly objectionable and against national interest but “in what manner the contents are objectionable and against national interest is not discernible from the notification,” the bench said.

Reacting to the order, Jaswant Singh said while he was “thrilled” and felt vindicated, he was dismayed that courts had to intervene in the matter. “It is a matter of satisfaction that the court has lifted the ban on the book,” Singh said, adding the court had upheld freedom of speech.

The bench said the notification was silent on how contents of the book could be “misleading the public and are against public tranquility and against the interests of the state” as it mentioned. It pointed out no opinion was expressed by the state in the notification.

“Lack of opinion means lack of thinking; lack of thinking means lack of understanding,” the bench said, noting that “the state is dealing with the fundamental rights of its citizens and, therefore, a great amount of caution, prudence and care is expected.”

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