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Supreme Court to take up Mediaone’s petition against Centre’s ban on March 10
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on March 10 a plea of Malayalam news channel MediaOne against the Kerala high court order upholding the Centre’s decision to stop its telecast by not renewing its licence due to “security reasons”.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on March 10 a plea of Malayalam news channel MediaOne against the Kerala high court order upholding the Centre’s decision to stop its telecast by not renewing its licence due to “security reasons”.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions made by the channel’s counsel, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, that the plea needed an urgent hearing.
“This is too serious. For 11 years, we have been functioning and we have 350 employees and millions of viewers. We have been shut down because of some secret files from the home ministry. Both the single judge and the division bench of the high court have justified this (action of the government) behind my back,” Dave said.
This is too serious and the issue involved is right to information and freedom of press, he added.
To this, the CJI said: “List on Friday before an appropriate bench.”
Later, Dave requested the court to take up the matter on Thursday as he had some personal difficulty on Friday. The court accordingly directed the matter for hearing on Thursday.
The Kerala high court on March 2 upheld the Centre’s ban on the news channel, citing security reasons, and dismissed the plea of Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd against the decision.
The 10-year broadcasting licence of the channel had expired on September 29, 2021, but the company had applied for renewal in May. The union information and broadcasting ministry suspended the broadcast of MediaOne on January 31, two days after the Union home ministry denied the channel security clearance.
The channel has so far lost two legal rounds of challenge against the ban, first before a single judge of the Kerala high court on February 9 followed by a two-judge bench on March 2. The judgments noted that the channel was backed by Jamaat-e-Islami’s Kerala chapter.
The high court, while dismissing the appeal by the channel management and employees, said “certain aspects relating to the security of the State are mentioned to the effect that Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited has some linkages with certain undesirable forces, which is stated to be a security threat”.
The Centre informed the high court that national security concerns formed the basis for denying security clearance for renewal of a channel’s license.
The channel, however, contended that home ministry clearance was only required at the time for fresh permission/license and not at the time of renewal.
