Supreme Court Issues Notice On Kerala Union of Working Journalist's Plea Challenging Centre's Telecast Ban On Media One Channel

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a plea moved by Kerala Union of Working Journalists assailing High Court's order of upholding the recent ban imposed on Malayalam news channel MediaOne by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant while issuing notice, tagged the matter with a similar plea moved by Media One. The bench also granted the petitioner liberty to serve the Central Agency.When the matter was called for hearing, Justice DY Chandrachud, the presiding judge of the bench said, "Mr Beeran, we'll issue notice and tag with the other matter." Advocate Haris Beeran appeared for the petitioner.It may be noted that the Top Court on March 15, 2022 had stayed the telecast ban imposed by the Union Government on Malayalam news channel MediaOne. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath passed the order after examining the files produced by the Ministry of Home Affairs raising security concerns regarding the company running the channel.The bench perused the files itself, without sharing them with the petitioner, with the consent of its counsel Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave. The bench said that a prima facie case was made out for the grant of interim relief for the channel.The channel has been allowed to operate as it used to do before the Center's decision. The bench also clarified in the order that its perusal of the files should be understood as an approval of the sealed cover procedure.BackgroundOn January 31, a few hours after the Ministry refused to renew the broadcast license of the channel citing security concerns(which were not disclosed), MediaOne had approached the Single Judge with a plea. The channel owned by Jamaat-e-Islami went off the air on the very same day. Although the Single Judge granted the channel an interim relief allowing it to telecast till the case was decided, Justice N. Nagaresh held that after perusing the files from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, it has found intelligence inputs that justify the denial of security clearance to the channel. The Ministry had produced the files before the Court in a sealed cover.Aggrieved by this, MediaOne had approached a Division Bench with an appeal. However, the division bench agreed with the single Judge and upheld the recent ban imposed on it by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting citing that national security was of utmost importance for the smooth functioning of a country.Case Title: Kerala Union Of Working Journalists And Ors v. Union of India| SLP (C) 4678 of 2022.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Issues Notice On Kerala Union of Working Journalist's Plea Challenging Centre's Telecast Ban On Media One Channel

Shruti Kakkar

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