SC seeks Centre’s reply on plea of Kerala journalists’ physique in opposition to TV channel ban

By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre on a plea by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists difficult a Kerala High Court order upholding a ban on the telecast of a Malayalam information channel.

A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant issued discover and tagged it together with the plea filed by the channel itself, whereas directing {that a} copy be served to the central company.

On March 15, the highest courtroom had stayed until additional orders the January 31 directive of the Centre revoking the licence of Malayalam information channel ‘MediaOne’ and banning its telecast on safety grounds.

It had mentioned the information and present affairs channel will proceed its operations because it was doing previous to the ban.

“We are of the view that the case of grant of interim relief has been made out. We order and direct that order dated January 31, 2022 of the Union government revoking the security clearance of Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd stands stayed pending further orders”, the highest courtroom had ordered.

“The petitioners (Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd and Pramod Raman editor of the channel and others) shall be permitted to proceed working the information and present affairs channel ‘MediaOne’ on the identical foundation because it was working previous to the revocation of clearances,” it had mentioned.

The prime courtroom had handed the order after perusing the recordsdata positioned earlier than it by the Centre on the idea of which safety clearance was revoked and the Kerala High Court had handed the order upholding the ban on the telecast.

It had left the query open on whether or not the content material of recordsdata on the idea of which the ban order was handed be given to the channel to allow it to defend itself.

On March 10, the highest courtroom had sought the Centre’s response to the channel’s plea in opposition to the Kerala High Court order upholding the Centre’s choice to ban its telecast on safety grounds.

It had requested the Centre to put on report the file which was relied on by the excessive courtroom.

The Kerala High Court had upheld the Centre’s choice to bar the telecast of the Malayalam information channel and dismissed the plea of Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd — which operates MediaOne — difficult the central authorities’s January 31 choice.

The excessive courtroom had mentioned that the choice of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to disclaim safety clearance was primarily based on intelligence inputs acquired from numerous companies.

The channel had contended that MHA clearance was solely required on the time for recent permission/licence and never on the time of renewal.

It had additionally contended that in keeping with the uplinking and downlinking pointers, safety clearance was solely required on the time of utility for recent permission and never on the time of renewal of licence.