Apex court to hear plea by Kerala news channel against ban

07-03-2022

The Top court today accepted to hear a petition by Kerala news channel Media One against the Kerala High Court's judgement, which upheld the Union’s decision not to renew its broadcast licence regarding the concern of national security.

A bench headed by CJI N V Ramana and justices composed of justice A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli accepted to hear the plea for attending the case on March 10.

Senior lawyer Dushyant Dave informed the bench to mention this petition for urgent listing on behalf of the media channel.

The Advocate clearly mentioned that  “ Media one has been fully not in progress due to certain confidential files from the Ministry of Home affairs and the bench has made the justification behind our back. It's too deep a concern regarding the RTI and press freedom”.

He further said for almost eleven years, the media institution has functioned and the channel has three-fifty workers and millions of viewers.

The media house is about to have the support of the state chapter of Jamaat-e-Islami, appealed to the apex court after the Kerala High Court on 2nd March upheld the ban regarding it by the I&B ministry on 31st January.

The high court division bench said that with some concerns with respect to the state security, the government is at full freedom to decline to renew the permission, without disclosing the full reasons for the non-renewal of licence.

The Kerala Highcourt had then dismissed the appeals issued by the media’s management and journalists against the 9th February judgement by the single judge bench, which declined to lift the ban.

The channel run by Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited previously got a two-day ban in relation to its broadcasting of the 2020 Delhi riots.