E-Paper
SC notice on Union’s plea to club petitions against OTT platforms from HCs
At present, the government has identified 40 OTT platforms which live stream content.
The Supreme Court has issued a notice on a transfer petition moved by the Centre to club all petitions filed in various high courts for regulating over the top platforms including Netflix and Amazon Prime.
A bench of justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna on February 9 issued a notice on the transfer petition filed jointly by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Law and Justice. The notices were issued to all petitioners who have filed the petitions in the Punjab & Haryana HC, Madhya Pradesh HC and the Allahabad HC.
At present, the government has identified 40 OTT platforms which live stream content.
The bench has posted the matter for hearing on March 23 to be listed along with the pending public interest litigation filed by the non-profit Justice for All.
Recently, the Supreme Court, denied interim protection from arrest to the makers of the web-series Taandav. The court was hearing complaints filed against them for airing content which allegedly hurt religious sentiments. It also allowed the producers, actors as well as Amazon Prime India – the series was aired on the service -- to approach the respective High Courts for protection.
Last month, the top court also issued a notice on a petition by an Uttar Pradesh resident seeking ban on the web series Mirzapur 2, which was also aired on Amazon Prime. The complainant alleged that the series tarnished the historical and cultural image of the old city of Mirzapur while depicting characters as goons. The notices were issued to Amazon Prime and Excel Entertainment besides the Centre with the petition pleading for a pre-screening committee for programmes directly aired on OTT platforms.
