Supreme Court stays ban on Media One channel

Bench says company is ‘surely entitled’ to know ‘particulars’ of ban

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Central government’s decision to revoke the security clearance of Kerala-based news and current affairs TV channel Media One “on the basis of intelligence inputs which are sensitive and secretive in nature”.

Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, heading a three-judge Bench, said the government’s decision had effectively shut down the business of media house Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, which runs Media One in the name of “national security and public order” without fully disclosing the specific reasons for revoking their security clearance.

The Bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath, said the company was “surely entitled” to know the “particulars” of the ban.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Haris Beeran, representing the company, said if the court allowed this to happen “no media or publication is safe. Everybody can be shut down anytime”.

After taking a 10-minute break to peruse the contents of the government files based on which the media company’s security clearance was not renewed in an order on January 31, 2022, the court observed that “at the present stage, we are of the view that a case for interim relief has been made out in behalf of the petitioners [media house] with due regards to the contents of the files perused by the court”.

“We accordingly direct that, pending further orders, the order of the Union government of January 31, 2022 revoking security clearance to Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited shall remain stayed,” the court directed.

The Bench directed that the channel would continue operations as before January 31.