The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the Centre’s telecast ban on Malayalam news channel MediaOne, and said that national security claims cannot be made in “thin air”, reported Bar and Bench.
The channel was denied security clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) over alleged links with the Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli set aside a Kerala High Court order which upheld the Centre’s action, and directed the license of the channel be renewed in four weeks.
The apex court was hearing the plea of the news channel against the Kerala High Court’s order which had upheld the Centre’s decision to ban its telecast on security grounds.
“Some of the reports cited by IB are that minorities favoring reports were telecast, there was critique of UAPA, NRC, CAA and criticism of judiciary and executive… such reports are just inference of what is available in the public domain. There was nothing to show terrorist links,” the Court said.
“We hold national security claims cannot be made on the basis of thin air. It is seen that none of the material is against national security or threatens public order,” the judgment said, as quoted by Bar and Bench.
The apex court refused to accept the Centre’s reasons for its ban in a “sealed cover”, saying it curbed the rights of the petitioner.
“Sealed cover has curbed the right to fair and reasonable proceedings leaving appellants in the dark to fight out the case,” the Court said.
Further, the court said that critical views of the channel against government policies cannot be termed as anti-establishment as an independent press is necessary for a robust democracy, reported PTI.
“Press has a duty to speak truth to power and present citizens with hard facts enabling them to make choices that propel democracy in the right direction. The restriction on freedom of press compels citizens to think along the same tangent. Homogenised views on issues that range from socio economic polity to political ideologies would pose great dangers to democracy,” the bench said, adding that non-renewal of license for a channel is a restriction on the right to freedom of speech.
Further, calling the allegations that the channel MediaOne was linked to Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JEIH) “fallacious”, the top court said that the JEIH is not a banned organisation, and there was no material to show that office holders of the channel are shareholders of the organisation.
The MediaOne channel was taken off air on January 31 last year, following which it had approached the High Court.
The high court had dismissed the plea of Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd — which operates MediaOne — challenging the central government’s January 31 decision, saying that decision of the MHA to deny security clearance was based on intelligence inputs received from various agencies.
The channel had contended that MHA clearance was only required at the time for fresh permission/licence and not at the time of renewal.
In an interim order, the Supreme Court, on March 15, stayed until further direction the January 31 directive of the Centre revoking the licence of the news channel and banning its telecast on security grounds.