PIL in HC on unrestricted content telecast on Internet

The Karnataka High Court has issued notices to the Centre, state government, Netflix (India), Youtube, Google India Pvt Ltd, Star India, Amazon Prime, Amazon Development Centre (India) and All Digital Media Entertainment Ltd, while hearing a PIL challenging the unrestricted content telecast through Internet.

The court was hearing a petition by Padmanabh Shankar, a retired businessman who has moved the court seeking directions to the Centre to come up with a suitable legislation to set up a board or authority to sanction the content broadcast through Internet by the respondents.

The petitioner has challenged the lack of framework to regulate the content broadcast by the respondents through Internet and also the lack of mechanism to regulate broadcasting of films, serials and multimedia content.

The petitioner has cited the examples of content produced by HBO Cable Networks, which produced Game of Thrones and Focus Features that produced the film '50 Shades of Grey'.

The petitioner said there is no statutory framework or mechanism to regulate the content broadcast by the respondents through Internet.