Supreme Court pauses blackout order against Karnataka tv channel

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, July 12, 2024: The Supreme Court has paused a Karnataka High Court order stopping the broadcast of a private TV channel on the grounds of lack of proper license.

The ’Power TV’ channel had made elaborate coverage telecast of the alleged sex scandal involving suspended JDS leader Prajwal Revanna and his brother Suraj Revanna.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud termed the blackout action "sheer political vendetta" and said the intention was to completely black out their voice.

"The more we hear you the more we are convinced this is political vendetta...the idea was to completely blank out his voice. The state is duty bound to protect his freedom of speech and expression," the Chief Justice said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta protested the CJI’s remark and said it is not borne out of record as the February 9 show cause notice related to the channel subletting its uplink and downlinking license.

The Supreme Court will take up the case again on Monday.

The Karnataka High Court had last month restrained the Power TV channel from broadcasting activity till July 9 after it was found that their licence had expired in 2021.

Justice SR Krishna Kumar had passed the interim order after IPS officer BR Ravikanthe Gowda and ex-MLC HM Ramesh Gowda filed separate petitions claiming that the channel was airing programmes even after their licence had expired.

The Information and Broadcast ministry too informed the court that proceedings have been initiated against the company that runs the channel.