MediaOne Case: SC Stays Centre's Order Banning Malayalam Channel's Broadcast

The apex court has allowed the channel to continue operating as it was prior to the Centre's ban on its telecast.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 15 March, stayed the 31 January order of the Centre banning the telecast of Malayalam news channel 'MediaOne' on security grounds.

(Photo: Chetan Bhakuni/TheQuint)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 15 March, stayed the 31 January order of the Centre, which banned the telecast of Malayalam news channel 'MediaOne' on national security grounds.

In a big relief to MediaOne, the apex court has allowed the channel to continue operating as it was prior to the Centre's order on the ban of its telecast.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and Vikram Nath passed the order after examining the files produced by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which raised security concerns regarding the company running the channel.

While clarifying in the order that its perusal of the files should be understood as an approval of the sealed cover procedure, the bench examined the files itself, without sharing them with the petitioner, with the consent of its counsel Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, LiveLaw reported.

A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana and comprising Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli had agreed to list the petition for hearing on 11 March.

Background

This wasn't the first time national security was used to ban the telecast of the channel.

While on 31 January, the I&B Ministry denied the channel the right to run its operations on "national security" grounds, in 2016, the channel was sent a show-cause notice which had cited the same reason – "national security" – to demand a halt to its functioning.

This was in addition to an order which suspended the channel's broadcast for 48 hours in February 2020, in view of its extensive coverage of the Delhi riots. At the same time, another Malayalam news channel, Asianet, was also asked to halt its broadcast for two days.

MediaOne had moved the top court after the Kerala High Court had upheld the ban imposed on the channel.

The division bench of the Kerala High Court had then noted that when certain issues with respect to the security of the state were concerned, the government was at liberty to decline to renew the permission granted, without disclosing the complete reasons for the non-renewal.

Further, the high court had on 2 March dismissed the appeals filed by the channel's management and journalists challenging the 9 February single-bench order, which refused to lift the ban.

(With inputs from LiveLaw.in.)