[TANDAV] Supreme Court grants protection from arrest to Amazon Prime India head Aparna Purohit; calls for law to regulate OTT platforms

The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from arrest to India Head of Amazon Prime Video, Aparna Purohit in the case registered against her in connection with the web series 'Tandav'..A Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy also observed that the regulations in place to govern Over the Top (OTT) platforms are toothless and such content cannot be regulated without a law. .The Court was hearing the Purohit's appeal challenging the Allahabad High Court order of February 25 which had denied her plea for an anticipatory bail in FIR filed in Greater Noida with regard to the Tandav web series. .Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi, representing Purohit told the Court that she has been co-operating with the investigating agency. Rohatgi also submitted that Purohit is only an employee of the company which owns the platform on which the web-series can be viewed. He also submitted that the alleged objectionable scenes have already been removed, and the makers have apologised."We have already removed two scenes and if Solicitor General (Tushar Mehta) says we will remove a few more scenes," Rohtagi said. .Supreme Court proceeded to issue notice to the government in the matter and protected Purohit from arrested subject to her cooperating with the investigating agency..The case stemmed from a First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Uttar Pradesh Police against Purohit for offences under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295 (defiling place of worship), 295A (hurting religious sentiments), 505(1)(b), 505(2) (statements conducive to public mischief) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 66 and 67 of the Information Technology Act.Aside from Purohit, FIRs were also registered against Director of Tandav, Ali Abbas Zafar, Producer Himanshu Mehra and Writer Gaurav Solanki..The Allahabad High Court had, on February 25, rejected Purohit's bail plea, noting in its order that the sentiments of majority community have been hurt by display of the characters of their faith in disrespectful manner..The High Court said that the use of the word "Tandav" as name of the series can be offensive to the majority of the people in the country since it is associated with a particular act assigned to Lord Shiva..Justice Siddharth of Allahabad High Court further said that there was a deliberate and malicious intention on the part of Purohit to outrage religious feelings, which would attract the offence under Section 153-A of the IPC..The hearing before the Supreme Court on Friday also witnessed a discussion on regulation of OTT platforms. .When the top court had heard the matter on Thursday, it had asked the Central government to submit the OTT regulations brought in force on February 5. .The Court on Friday remarked that it found the regulations insufficient to govern the platforms. ."We went through the Technology intermediary guidelines. But there is no teeth. No power of prosecution. These are just guidelines. No mechanism to control it. Without legislation you cannot control it," Justice Bhushan remarked. To this Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the government will prepare a draft law and submit before court for consideration..The Court proceeded to record the same in its order. .Purohit was represented by Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi and Sidharth Luthra assisted by a team from Karanjawala & Co. led by Senior Partner Ruby Singh Ahuja.