SC shields Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan from arrest, issues notice to Centre
India Today
The Supreme Court has granted interim protection to Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan after multiple cases were filed against him for allegedly telecasting a misleading post on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim protection to Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan in relation to multiple cases filed against him for allegedly telecasting a misleading post on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.
While issuing a notice to the Centre through the office of the Attorney General, a bench comprising Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice JK Maheshwari has restrained authorities from taking coercive steps against Ranjan, including arrest, in connection with telecast of the show DNA on July 1.
During a brief hearing on Friday, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Ranjan, submitted that an error was made in the programme, and Ranjan has already apologised for the same. Further, the concerned persons have accepted their fault and resigned from the company.
The present petitioner, a news anchor and Executive Assistant Producer of Zee New, has in his petition submitted that he hosted a program which inadvertently misattributed certain quotes and the error was immediately rectified.
Also, unconditional apology was tendered by him and the channel and the news show was withdrawn even prior to filing of any complaint.
The petitioner has pointed out that multiple FIRs have been filed against Ranjan under various provisions of law for the same incident, even though the error was unintentional and was almost immediately set right.
According to Ranjan, the error that occurred was unintentional and in any case, the issue at best is covered by Section 16 and 17 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and Programming Rules against the broadcaster.
