NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has ordered the seizure of two paintings displayed by Delhi Art Gallery portraying Hindu deities by the late Padma Vibhushan-winning artist M F Husain.
The directions by the court of judicial magistrate first class Sahil Monga came while hearing an application filed by advocate Amita Sachdeva, who had claimed that the paintings were offensive and portrayed the deities disparagingly.
“An application under BNSS Section 94 (summons to produce documents or other items) was moved by the complainant for direction to the investigating officer to seize the painting in question. In light of the facts and circumstances mentioned, the application is allowed and the IO is directed to seize the painting and file a report on Jan 22,” said the court in an order on Monday.
“As per the action taken report, the IO already seized CCTV footage and the NVR (network video recorder) of Delhi Art Gallery. It is stated in the ATR that a list of paintings was provided by Delhi Art Gallery in which the paintings in question are mentioned at Serial No. 6 and 10. It is further stated that the exhibition was held in a private space and the paintings were only to display the original work of authors/artists,” said the court.
In Dec last year, Sachdeva approached the court for preserving the CCTV footage of Dec 4 and Dec 6-10 from the art gallery when the exhibition displayed Husain’s paintings. On Dec 18, the court directed the production and preservation of the footage. On Jan 4, the court noted a report was filed by the IO, which mentioned that CCTV footage from the dates was preserved and filed along with the report.
The advocate also posted the paintings on her X account. “On Dec 4, I clicked photos of offensive paintings and filed a complaint on Dec 9 at Parliament Street PS after researching past FIRs against MF Husain. However, during a visit with the IO on Dec 10, the paintings were removed and falsely claimed they were never displayed (sic),” she posted last month.
