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SC defends free speech, stays ban on news channel
Supreme Court stays order halting Kannada news channel Power TV, citing political vendetta over sex tape coverage; emphasizes right to free speech.
New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday emphasised its duty to intervene whenever the State attempts to suppress the free dissemination of news and information, as it stayed an order that had stopped Kannada news channel Power TV from broadcasting.
A bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, remarked that the attempt to silence the channel seemed to be a “sheer political vendetta” because the channel wanted details of a sex tape (ostensibly within broadcasting guidelines for such material). Notably, the channel and its additional director Rakesh Shetty have been at the forefront of campaigns against Janata Dal (Secular) leaders, including former parliamentarian Prajwal Revanna who has been accused of sexually assaulting several women.
“The more you people argue in this case, the more we are sure it’s nothing but political vendetta and that we must step in to protect his right to free speech,” remarked the bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, as it stayed the order until July 15 when the court said it might pass a detailed order.
“He (channel) wanted to broadcast a sex scandal and the idea was to stop him from doing so. The idea is to completely blank out his voice. This is a sheer political vendetta and nothing else. And this court will be failing in its duty if it doesn’t allow him to exercise his rights,” observed the bench, in a powerful affirmation of the right to freedom of expression.
The Supreme Court’s intervention followed an earlier restraint by a single-judge bench of the Karnataka high court, which had halted Power TV’s broadcasts in June, citing the channel’s lack of a requisite license from the ministry of information & broadcasting. This order stemmed from petitions filed by JD(S) leader Ramesh Gowda and IPS officer BR Ravikanthe Gowda, leading to an interim directive to cease the channel’s operations. On July 3, a division bench of the high court deferred the final decision to the Centre while keeping the interim order in place.
The channel was represented in the top court through senior advocates Ranjit Kumar and Sunil Fernandes, assisted by advocate Mithu Jain.
During the hearing of the channel’s appeal against the high court order, the bench on Friday also criticised the Union government for supporting the high court’s restraint without sufficient independent evaluation. It pointedly asked: “Where was the independent application of mind? Why should the Centre restrain the channel based on a high court order when there is an independent adjudication ongoing?”
The court noted that the high court restraint was premised on a show-cause notice issued on February 9 against Mitcon Infraprojects, the channel’s licence holder, for continuing to broadcast Power TV despite the lapse of the licence awarded to the firm. “So, the high court issued the order based on your notice and then you issue a restraining order based on the high court order. How can that be?” it asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Centre.
Mehta responded that there were serious allegations against the channel, including subletting its uplink and downlinking license. To this, the bench said that the issue would require independent adjudication and that the high court’s order cannot become the basis for the Centre to stop the channel from broadcasting.
Passing a brief order of stay, the bench said that the matter will be taken up again on July 15.
A single judge bench of the Karnataka high court on June 25 directed the channel to stop broadcasting, noting that Power TV does not have the requisite licence from the central ministry.
After the channel assailed this order before a division bench, the high court affirmed the temporary prohibition on broadcasting, highlighting that the channel’s permission to uplink and downlink news expired on October 12, 2021, and the renewal application was still pending. The division bench set a six-week timeline for the Centre to decide the show-cause notice and the license renewal plea of the channel.
In the Supreme Court, channel’s additional director Rakesh Shetty filed a personal affidavit, stating that the channel was being constantly pressured to stop its “expose” on the alleged sex scandal involving Prajwal Revanna and that the actions against the channel was being targeted for its broadcast.
Revanna, who had fled to Munich, Germany, was arrested on May 31 after returning to India. He faces three separate cases of sexual abuse, including allegations from a former house help, a former member of the Hassan zilla panchayat and a woman in her 60s. Explicit videos allegedly involving Prajwal surfaced in Hassan ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, leading to his suspension from the JD(S) party. The 33-year-old grandson of JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda had failed in his bid to retain the Hassan parliamentary constituency in the recent polls.
Prajwal’s father HD Revanna, who is a legislator in the Karnataka state assembly, is also accused in the police complaint lodged by a former employee of the family. He has denied the allegations, calling them a political conspiracy.
