against stereotyping on the basis of a person's religious beliefs.

Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud, who was part of the full bench, made the remark during the hearing of a petition challenging the ban on a book authored by a city lawyer. The bench also comprised Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R S Mohite.

The judges admonished a lawyer who tried to link 26/11 attacks in Mumbai to teachings in the Quran. The court pointed to statistics in US where many persons arrested for criminal offences were found to be black. "On that basis every black person cannot be said to be a criminal," he said.

The full bench of HC was set up to hear a petition filed by Mumbai-based advocate R V Bhasin against the Maharashtra government's 2007 ban on his book 'Islam: A concept of Political World Invasion by Muslims'. The state had banned the book on the apprehension that it may lead to communal disharmony. Bhasin claimed that his book "analyses intellectually, the background of world history in context of the effect of Islam over the world and in particular over the social, cultural and political systems in India".

An intervention application filed by a clutch of organisations — Jamat-E-Islami-E-Hind, Islamic Research Foundation, Bombay Aman Committee and the Maharashtra Muslim Lawyers Forum — said the book was intended to hold ideology of Islam in contempt and create hatred for Muslims. Source: Times of India