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SC restrains Sudarshan TV channel from running programme on 'UPSC Jihad'

Last Updated 15 September 2020, 15:16 IST

The Supreme Court on Tuesday restrained Sudarshan News TV Channel from running remaining episodes of a programme 'UPSC Jihad'. It said that attempts to vilify a community must be viewed with great disfavour by the court, which is custodian of constitutional rights.

Maintaining that journalists can't enjoy absolute free speech, the court indicated to regulate the electronic media in view of its powerful impact and wide reach, saying people might not read newspapers today but do watch television.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and K M Joseph said the show apparently made insidious attempt to vilify Muslims as it propagated that they are "infiltrating" civil services.

"The edifice of a stable democracy society under a regime of constitutional rights and values is founded on co-existence of communities. India is a melting pot of civilisations, cultures and values," the bench noted.

The court passed its order on a petition filed by advocate Firoz Iqbal Khan, who contended pre-telecast ban was denied on August 28 but the situation now has changed with running of a few episodes.

The episode telecast were "palpably erroneous but have been made in wanton disregard of the truth. There is no relaxation either in the age limit or in the number of attempts available to the Muslim community in the civil services. The drift, tenor and content of the episodes is to bring the community into public hatred and disrepute," the bench said.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the TV channel, submitted that the show was an investigative journalistic piece, raising issue of national security.

During the hearing, the bench expressed its displeasure over the manner of debates and discussions being carried out in some Television channels.

The Centre, led by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, opposed any efforts to regulate TV media, saying the freedom enjoyed by the print and electronic media journalist was supreme and it would be disastrous for any democracy to control the press. The Union government also referred to web portals and YouTube channels, which remained unregulated.

The bench, however, said the law does not have to regulate everything to regulate something.

The court put the matter for consideration on September 17.

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(Published 15 September 2020, 12:21 IST)

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