By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre on a plea by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists challenging a Kerala High Court order upholding a ban on the telecast of a Malayalam news channel.
A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant issued notice and tagged it along with the plea filed by the channel itself, while directing that a copy be served to the central agency.
On March 15, the top court had stayed till further orders the January 31 directive of the Centre revoking the licence of Malayalam news channel ‘MediaOne’ and banning its telecast on security grounds.
It had said the news and current affairs channel will continue its operations as it was doing prior to the ban.
“We are of the view that the case of grant of interim relief has been made out. We order and direct that order dated January 31, 2022 of the Union government revoking the security clearance of Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd stands stayed pending further orders”, the top court had ordered.
“The petitioners (Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd and Pramod Raman editor of the channel and others) shall be permitted to continue operating the news and current affairs channel ‘MediaOne’ on the same basis as it was operating prior to the revocation of clearances,” it had said.
The top court had passed the order after perusing the files placed before it by the Centre on the basis of which security clearance was revoked and the Kerala High Court had passed the order upholding the ban on the telecast.
It had left the question open on whether the content of files on the basis of which the ban order was passed be given to the channel to enable it to defend itself.
On March 10, the top court had sought the Centre’s response to the channel’s plea against the Kerala High Court order upholding the Centre’s decision to ban its telecast on security grounds.
It had asked the Centre to place on record the file which was relied on by the high court.
The Kerala High Court had upheld the Centre’s decision to bar the telecast of the Malayalam news channel and dismissed the plea of Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd — which operates MediaOne — challenging the central government’s January 31 decision.
The high court had said that the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to deny security clearance was based on intelligence inputs received from various agencies.
The channel had contended that MHA clearance was only required at the time for fresh permission/licence and not at the time of renewal.
It had also contended that according to the uplinking and downlinking guidelines, security clearance was only required at the time of application for fresh permission and not at the time of renewal of licence.
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