SUJATO BHADRA Vs. STATE OF W B

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I have the privilege of going through the judgment prepared by His Lordship the Hon'ble Alok Kumar Basu, J. I fully concur with the view and the reasoning given therein. However, I would like to add a few words of mine in support of the judgment prepared by His Lordship.

(2.) Before we embark upon deciding the question whether the book "Dwikhandita" written by Taslima Narseen of Bangladesh could be proscribed in India, we may note some of the relevant facts, which require attention for the purpose of answering the question. These are : (1) that the book "Dwikhandita" is the third volume of the autobiolographical trilogy of the author (2) that she, herself a woman, had written the alleged offending part in the context of the status of women in the society in Bangladesh emanating from adopting of Islam as a State religion; (3) that she was expressing her own view and political thoughts/philosophy in relation to the Constitution of Bangladesh of which secularism was one of its salient features since deviated from, subsequently, by the State by adoption of Islam as a State religion doing away with the secularism to suit the particular purpose of the particular ruler; (4) that the author has been in exile from her own motherland for some of her earlier writings that she understood to be the result of religious fundamentalism against which she was unable to obtain any protection from the State machinery in her own motherland; (5) that she was attempting to expose the politico religious situation affecting the society as a whole pushing the position of women into an absolute insolent and abominable existence dominated by the male counterparts in the name of religion aided and abated by the State machinery guided by the State religion; (6) that she was attemting to strike hard to deliver a shock in order to awake the sleeping dormant conscience of the people of Bangladesh to restore secular democracy initially subscribed by the Constitution of Bangladesh and eradicate the maladies of the society and for paving the ways for emancipation of the women and the society ; (7)that she had pointed out of the darkness befalling the State of Bangladesh and . the society on account of religious belief by pointing out the debilities and ill effects inherent in the religious belief opposed to the true religion preached by lalsm, a religion of humanity and mankind.

(3.) The intention of the author, who herself profess the same religion, has to be gathered from the context of the book itself which is argued to be an eye-opener pointing out her fingers to the inconsistency in the Holy Scriptures, relying on history and other authentic biographies of the Holy Prophet and the Holy Koran and other Holy Scriptures. It is also to be noted that the passage was written in the context of the position of women in Bangladesh being appraised in the light of adopting of the State religion at the cost of secularism and democracy with different standard for women and men.