Supreme Court extends stay on restraining order of the Karnataka HC on broadcast of the Kannada news channel ‘Power TV’

Yesterday (July 15, 2025), the Supreme Court (SC) was hearing a petition challenging the decision of the division bench of the Karnataka High Court refusing to interfere with the stay order passed by the single-judge bench against the broadcast of the Kannada news channel ‘Power TV’. The petition was filed by M/s Power Smart Media Private Limited which operates the ‘Power TV’ channel. The bench constituting Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra passed an order on July 15 extending the interim stay on the restraining order of the Karnataka HC until Monday (July 22). The order reads, “List the Special Leave Petitions on 22 July 2024 (Monday). The interim order passed on 12 July 2024 to continue till the next date of listing.” Also, the SC asked the Centre to “tell us in the last three years which were such channels who had applied for renewal but were not allowed to continue pending the decision of renewal.”

The broadcasting of the channel was stopped because of the telecasting of the sex scandal involving some senior JD(S) politicians including Prajwal Revanna and Suraj Revanna. During the proceedings, the SC asked Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit “How many other stations who have applied for licences have been directed to shut down in the meantime? Mr Banerjee you tell us if an existing station which applies for a renewal of a license, how many such cases they ask them to shut down pending the renewal? What was the position in the last three years? Produce data before us, (1) which were the channels which applied for renewal of permission? and (2) whether they were permitted to operate pending the disposal of their application." Apart from this, the bench remarked, “We are inclined to protect the freedom of speech and expression. It looks like a plain case of political vendetta and this court would be failing in its duty if it does not protect the petitioner.” Therefore, the matter was listed for further hearing on July 22, 2024.