For the past few months, online portals and blogs have been filled with news of Tehelka possibly shutting down, news channels from NDTV to IBN Network to the Today Group laying off employees. Almost none, though, have reported on the Tamil Nadu-based Sri Ramaswamy Memorial (SRM) group deciding to indefinitely postpone the launch of its English news channel based out of New Delhi and asking its 40-odd staff to either take 50% pay cuts or to leave with a severance package.

SRM might not be known in the Capital, but it’s no small fry. The group had launched a political weekly in Tamil Nadu, Puthiya Thalaimurai in 2009 and also owns two television channels: a 24-hour Tamil news channel, Puthiya Thalaimurai launched in August 2011 and a general entertainment channel, Puthu Yugam launched in October 2013. It is after the success of these ventures that SRM through its media company – New Generation Media Private Limited – decided to launch an English news channel and hired senior journalists at competitive salaries to start the channel in New Delhi. Armed with big bucks and a good track record, the owners managed to rope in quite a few big names when the first round of hiring took place in 2012. A senior editor who was hired in 2012 told Newslaundry that before the sudden notice of closure, the management was in talks with many more senior journalists. “They pitched jobs to senior journalists by citing plans of making it the biggest newsroom in the country”, said another senior editor associated with the channel.

Why the Group’s priorities have changed could be linked to the fact that the SRM group has recently been in the news for purported malpractices on various fronts. The Investigation Directorate of Income Tax carried out a 30-hour long raid on the Group’s various premises on June 2013, following complaints of alleged payment of Rs 30 lakh as capitation fee for MBBS admission to their flagship university, SRM University. The Hindu had reported that the raid, which had spanned across seven cities, yielded unaccounted cash worth Rs.6.75 crore and jewellery. The report also mentioned the seizure of documents which indicated receipt of donations, inflated expenditure, diverting funds of trusts and evasion of income tax for the last few years.

Given recent happenings in the media, it’s not surprising for yet another media house to shut shop summarily without a care for its employees. However, the judicial mechanism this time has taken a strong stand against the management.

After being verbally told to leave their jobs or accept a drastic cut in salaries, the employees of New Generation Media Private Limited were served a letter on December 26, 2013. The letter signed by the CEO of New Generation Media, RBU Shyam Kumar asked the 40-odd employees of the prospective channel to take a salary reduction of 50 per cent or a severance package of three months. It also revealed that the  “turn of events over the few months including the unwarranted cancellation” of the English news licence by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had made the company “streamline its business priorities”. Following receiving the letter, the employees approached the Madras High Court. The court then responded by issuing an interim injunction on  Monday, December 30 against the management of New Generation Media Corporation Private Limited, restraining them from giving effect to their letter to the employees.

The SRM Group’s plans to close its channel has an uncanny similarity to the closure of Prime News – a bilingual news channel in Assam. As reported by Newslaundry in October 2013, the channel – backed by a real estate company with dubious credentials – had shut down all of a sudden, leaving as many as 170 employees in the lurch. It is a welcome move for journalists that the High Court of Madras has invoked the Industrial Disputes Act – according to which a company cannot close down a part of its operations without notifying the state government – and the Working Journalists Act while coming to the protection of the aggrieved journalists here. These legislations designed to protect the rights of employees have assumed even more importance in today’s volatile media space – marked by rampant corporatisation and dubious investors. Even if journalists can’t depend on their company’s management in these times, at least they can now depend on the law of the land.