The Supreme Court, on Monday, March 7, agreed to hear a plea of Malayalam news channel 'MediaOne' against the order of Kerala High Court upholding the union government’s decision to ban its telecast on security grounds. The apex court is to take up the plea on March 11. A bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the news channel, that the plea needed an urgent hearing.
“This is too serious. For 11 years, we have been functioning and we have 350 employees and millions of viewers. We have been shut down because of some secret files from the Home Ministry. Both the single judge and the division bench of the high court have justified this (action of the government) behind my back,” the senior lawyer said and added that the issue involved is right to information and freedom of the press.
The Kerala High Court, on March 2, upheld the single-judge order to ban Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV. A bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Chaly dismissed the news channel’s appeal against the Union government’s decision to stop its telecast by not renewing its licence. The channel went off air on January 31 after its licence was not renewed by the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry.
In addition to the channel, appeals were also filed in court by some of its employees, including its editor, as well the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), whose pleas against the Union government's decision were also rejected by the single judge on February 8.
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 union government had also said that the MHA denied security clearance over national security concerns based on intelligence inputs.
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.
(With IANS and PTI inputs)