Culture of banning books impacts free flow of ideas: SC

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Thursday said that the culture of banning books impacts the free flow of ideas and should not be taken recourse to unless they are hit by Section 292 of the IPC that prohibits obscenity.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud reserved its order on a plea seeking to omit certain excerpts from the controversial Malayalam novel "Meesha" written by author S. Hareesh.

"You are giving undue importance to this kind of stuff. In the age of Internet, you are making this an issue. It is best forgotten," said Justice Chandrachud.

The court gave expression to it's apparent reluctance to interfere with the passage being sought to be taken off as counsel Gopal Shankarayanan told the court that the passage they were seeking to be expunged makes insinuations against the priestly class.

Reserving the order, the court asked the newspaper which had carried the controversial passages to submit a note within five days - giving the theme of the book and the three parts of the book carried by the newspaper translated into English.