Breaking: Supreme Court Stays Restriction Imposed On Telecast Of MediaOne Channel

The Bench of Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath has stayed the restriction imposed on the telecast of Malayalam news channel MediaOne on its appeal.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave appeared for the Channel and submitted that 325 people are out of job and millions of people are not able to see the channel. 

ASG S. V. Raju sought time to file a reply. Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, said that the matter should be heard urgently as several such matters are pending. 

Justice Chandrachud asked what was the difficulty in showing the appellants the MHA file.

ASG K. M. Natraj referred to some comments having been made against the single judge who passed the judgment, in the YouTube channel of the appellant. "Criticising a judgment or order is part of the rights of citizens", Justice Chandrachud replied.

The Bench then perused the file and thereafter, stayed the impugned order restraining MediaOne from telecasting.

The Court ordered that the Counter affidavit be filed within two weeks and a rejoinder within one week thereafter. The MHA files are to be kept in the Court till the next date of hearing.

On 10 March, the Bench had issued notice on the appeal and fixed the hearing of the interim application today. The Bench had refused to pass any interim order and had directed the centre to produce all files today.

Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd., the company that owns the Malayalam news channel MediaOne had filed an appeal against the Judgment of the Division Bench of Kerala High Court dismissing their appeal against the Single Judge's Judgment upholding the restriction on the telecast of the channel.

The licence for telecasting MediaOne was due to expire on 29th September 2021 when the channel applied for renewal of the licence on 30th May 2021 and was served with a show-cause notice for revoking permission and later on 31st January 2022 an order revoking the permission was passed on the grounds of national security and public order.

The channel filed a writ petition before a Single Judge of the Kerala High Court and obtained an interim order permitting them to continue telecast. However, the Bench dismissed the writ petition after calling for and perusing the files of the Home Ministry.

The appeal filed by the Channel before the Division Bench of the High Court was also dismissed. The Division Bench had held after perusing the files of the Home Ministry that there are "certain serious adverse reports by the Intelligence Bureau against M/s.Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited and its Managing Director."

Against the said order, the channel had approached the Supreme Court, inter alia, contending that direction of the Division Bench to produce the files relating to the application of the channel for renewal of its license was passed behind its back.