The Chief Justice of India Dr. DY Chandrachud, agreed on January 30 to hear petitions challenging the Central Government's decision to censor the BBC documentary "India: The Modi Question" on February 6.

Advocate ML Sharma, a frequent courtroom litigant, has filed one petition. Journalist N. Ram, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, and others have filed another petition.

Sharma mentioned the plea for an urgent listing that was before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. The matter will be listed by CJI next week.

In order to erase the documentary's links from social media, senior attorney CU Singh Center has used the emergency provisions of the IT Rules. He claimed that N Ram and Advocate Prashant Bhushan's tweets have been deleted. Singh added that the blocking order has not yet been formally announced by the Centre. He continued, "Students are being expelled from universities for showing the video."

The Center's decision to prohibit the two-part documentary is referred to in the petition as "malafide, capricious, and unconstitutional" by Advocate ML Sharma, a frequent PIL litigator.

When the first segment of the documentary, which deals with sexual assault, was released on YouTube and Twitter on January 21, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting apparently used its emergency powers under the IT Rules 2021 to order the removal of the links, which deals with the Gujarat riots of 2002 which happened when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of the State.

In his petition, Sharma contended that Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution's right to information has been violated by the Center's decision and that citizens have a right to read news, facts, and reports about the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The petition highlighted the issue of “Whether without having an emergency declared under Article 352 of the Constitution of India by the President, emergency provisions can be invoked by the Central government?”.