SC issues notice on Malayalam TV channel plea against Centre's telecast ban

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice and posted the MediaOne TV matter for March 15, 2022. The notice was issued on the special leave petition filed by the channel against the ban on its broadcast after the ministry of information and broadcasting cited “security reasons”.

The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath interim relief in the case would be considered on March 15. The bench also asked the Centre to produce the relevant files on which the Kerala High court relied to deny the channel interim relief.

“We have something in our mind. What we propose to do now is to issue notice and keep the matter on next Tuesday. We are asking them to place on record the files before us,” said Justice Chandrachud.

Appearing for the channel, which is owned by Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi stated that there has been no complaint against the channel during its ten years of its functioning and there never was a requirement of security clearance at the time of renewal. He also objected to the Kerala High court asking for files in a sealed cover after the judgement was reserved.

Dushyant Dave, who also appeared for the channel, submitted that they had got the permission even in 2019 and that the channel had over 2.5 crore viewers.

Rohatgi pointed out that for a regional channel to survive it was extremely difficult and they had several hundreds of employees. “We request interim relief,” added Rohatgi.

It was also pointed out by that the High Court itself recorded in the judgment that the details of the security concerns were not discernible from the files produced by the State.

“We have seen that, Paragraph 32, they say too many details are not available,” added Justice Chandrachud.

“Issue notice returnable on March 15, 2022 on the SLP & the application for interim relief. Liberty is given to serve the central agency. Respondents shall produce all the relevant files on which reliance has been placed by the HC on the next date of listing. List on March 15, 2022,” stated the bench in the order.

MediaOne TV had applied for broadcast permissions to be renewed from September 30, 2021 to September 29, 2031. In response to this, the I&B Ministry had stated that the Home Ministry had denied security clearance. The channel stated that the reason for denial the security clearance was not mentioned in the I&B Ministry’s order.

On January 31, a few hours after the Ministry suspended the channel's telecast citing security concerns, MediaOne had approached the Single Judge in Kerala High Court against the suspension. Interim relief was granted, allowing it to telecast till the case was decided. Justice N Nagaresh then stated 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.