Other States – Orissa     Correspondent   

Centre, State to ban biography on Aurobindo  

CUTTACK: The State Government and Central government on Wednesday told the High Court that they would take immediate steps to ban the publication and circulation of the controversial book titled ‘The Lives of Sri Aurobindo’ written by US writer Peter Heehs.

In their respective counter affidavits filed in HC, the State and the Union governments admitted that the biography contains defamatory and perverse comments on Sri Aurobindo’s character, life, writings and thoughts, which are bound to affect the sentiments of lakhs of the spiritual leader’s followers.

The affidavits came in the wake of a PIL filed in HC by a Balasore-based woman Gitanjali Bhattacharya seeking ban on the publication and circulation of the book in India. The HC after admitting the petition had asked the governments to file counters.

The Orissa Government in its affidavit has mentioned that a crime branch enquiry was ordered to go through the contents of the book and find whether the book had defamatory comments about the popular spiritual leader.

“The police found the book blasphemous”, the State Government affidavit said. The book however, has not been published in India although; the Penguin Books had decided to publish the same in November 2008.

Online edition of India’s National Newspaper Thursday, Mar 05, 2009 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Centre, State to ban …