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A Supreme Court bench of Justices Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath today stayed the order of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) revoking the security clearance of TV channel Media One which had taken the channel off air. The order of MHA was upheld by a Single Judge and the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court.

Sr. Adv. Dushyant Dave, appearing for Media One had argued that, “We are being shut because we are being run by members belonging to the minority community."

He had further argued that after 11 years of continuous broadcast, the Division Bench of Kerala High Court had turned around and upheld the revocation of their license despite knowing very well that a security clearance was not required at the renewal stage.

He elaborated, “The order of the MHA was passed on January 31. We have been shut since February 8, when the Single Judge passed the order.  We were working before that. Our original permission was for 10 years, it was to come up for renewal in November 2021. They allowed us to continue till January without renewal.”

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, on the other hand, appeared for the Union Government and sought time to file a counter and place all the details on an affidavit.

Dave, however, insisted that the Court pass an interim order today. The Court hence summoned the files of the MHA based on which the license was cancelled and went through the same.

Upon perusal of the files, it held that,  “At the present stage a case for interim relief has been made out. We order and direct that the order of the UOI revoking the security clearance of Madhyamam shall remain stayed pending further orders. The petitioners shall be permitted to operate the Media One channel on the same basis as a channel immediately prior to revocation.”

The Court granted the Union two weeks to file counter and listed the matter thereafter for final hearing.

The Supreme Court had on Thursday issued notice in the plea filed by a Kerala based TV channel Media One challenging the ban imposed on it as it went off air on January 31 this year, after its license was not renewed by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B). The TV channel’s plea was dismissed by both the single judge and a Division Bench.

Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Dushyant Dave and Huzefa Ahmedi appeared for the TV channel and made their submissions. The court on hearing the parties issued notice returnable by Tuesday (15th March 2022) and directed the central agency to be present in the court with the files based on which the judgment of Kerala High Court was passed.

A division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly of the Kerala High Court upheld the ban imposed on MediaOne TV as it went off air on January 31 this year, after its license was not renewed by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B). Centre has said that the denial of security clearance to Media One by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is based on inputs received from intelligence agencies.

According to Wikipedia, Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd, operates MediaOne under the Kerala chapter of Jamiat-e-islami-Hind.

The Broadcaster had approached a division bench of the High Court after a single judge bench of Justice N. Nagaresh had upheld the central government’s decision.

In its appeal, MediaOne argued that it had been “victimised” for fair and genuine news reporting. 

It had also argued that no fresh security clearance was required under the relevant provisions of the uplinking and downlinking guidelines for renewal of license.

The Union government, on the other hand, had argued that where national security was concerned, reasons for denial of security clearance need not be provided and principles of natural justice — like giving a hearing, did not apply. 

Background

On January 31, the Central government had banned MediaOne citing “security reasons”. The Editor of MediaOne, Pramod Raman, had responded to the ban by saying that the government had not been forthcoming with any details behind its decision.

Allegedly, the TV channel, was issued a show-cause notice from the I&B ministry asking the the channel management why its licence should not be cancelled as the Ministry of Home Affairs had already cancelled its security clearance on “national security” grounds.

The showcause notice to MediaOne read, “The MHA has informed that the security clearance has been denied in the past to the proposals of the company and the security clearance may be considered as denied in the present case also.”

In its reply, the cannel told the ministry that it had never acted against national security, following which its license was renewed in 2019. 

In 2020, MediaOne, along with another Malayalam News channel, Asianet, was again suspended for 48 hours over their coverage of communal violence in Delhi in 2020, with the official orders saying they covered the violence in a biased manner highlighting the attack on places of worship and siding with a particular community.

Unlike in 2019 when the ministry renewed MediaOne’s licence, after the 2020 order it did not do so and issued an order on January 31, 2022, asking the company to stop operations.

Cause Title: Madhayamam Broadcasting vs Union of India