SC asks govt for material used to justify ban on MediaOne

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to the central government asking it to produce the material based on which it refused to renew the broadcasting licence of Malayalam news channel MediaOne, Bar and Bench reported.

The channel had gone off air on January 31 after the ministry of information and broadcasting refused to renew its licence due to “security reasons”. The Kerala high court, on March 2, dismissed MediaOne’s appeal against a single judge order that upheld the ban.

On March 7, while requesting for an urgent listing for the appeal, senior advocate Dushyant Dave had said that the channel was shut down due to some “secret files from home ministry” and that the Kerala high court had “justified it behind our back”.

On Thursday, a bench of justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath issued a notice on an appeal – by Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited which operates the channel – against the high court’s decision.

“Respondents shall produce all the relevant files on reliance has been placed by the court on next date of listing,” the order said.

Justice Chandrachud said, "We saw the order, they say too many details are not available.”

The case will now be heard on March 15.