The Supreme Court of India on Friday refused to impose a pre-broadcast ban on Sudarshan TV, which was caught up in a controversy after claiming a big expose regarding the alleged infiltration of Muslims in government services, in their program ‘Bindas Bol’.
The two-judge bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice KM Joseph said that it has to be “circumspect in imposing a prior restraint on publication or the airing of views.”
However, a notice was issued by the Court to the Centre, the Press Council of India, the News Broadcasters Association, and Sudarshan News.
The order read,
“At this stage, we have desisted from imposing a pre-broadcast interlocutory injunction on the basis of an unverified transcript of a forty-nine-second clip. The Court has to be circumspect in imposing a prior restraint on publication or the airing of views.”
Supreme Court of india
The petition before the Supreme Court had submitted that airing views on that particular program would be disparaging for the Muslim community and would also violate the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995.
Chanel’s editor-in-chief and the anchor of the program, Suresh Chavhanke, was criticized on social media platforms by the IPS Association as well as some of the bureaucrats.
Also Read: IPS Association Criticizes TV Channel For Allegedly Communal Broadcast
