The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre, the reasons for not disclosing the ban of Kerala news channel Media One, and for denying security clearance to the channel in the name of ‘national security’.
A Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud while addressing Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, appearing for the Centre told that even detainees under the National Security Act (NSA) get to know the reasons for their incarceration.
In The case of Media One, the Bench said in the threshold of criminality had not been reached yet. “Even a chargesheet discloses the material on the basis of which an offence is registered. In this case, we are not even at the stage of chargesheet… Here you are denying security clearance,” it observed.
Madhyamam had approached the centre to renew its broadcast licence after a 10-year period. However in January, the Ministry of Home Affairs had revoked their security clearance with a blank statement that it was done on the grounds of “national security and public order”.
The bench said renewal of licence was important for the channel considering the investments made in the past 10 years, the fate of their employees, their goodwill in the market and, their reputation.
Appearing for Madhyamam, senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Haris Beeran argued that restrictions on freedom of speech and the Press can be restricted within “reasonable grounds under Article 19(2) of the Constitution.”
Dave said that MHA’s submission of sealed files to the Court is not acceptable because it causes the opposing party to feel prejudiced while purportedly acting in the interest of national security.
“There is no allegation that the channel has violated the Program Code but their only crime is that the media house is owned by people of the minority community,” he claimed, adding that the channel is “widely respected among Malayalees and prominent people take part in the debates it hosts.”
Under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, Dave said that no security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs is required for the renewal of a broadcast license.
In an interim order on March 15, the top court had stayed until further directions the January 31 directive of the Central government revoking the licence of the news channel and banning its telecast on security grounds.
