NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the ban imposed by the Centre on Malayalam news channel MediaOne.
The apex court passed the interim order in a special leave petition filed by the company running MediaOne assailing the Kerala High Court's judgment of upholding the decision of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to not renew the broadcast license of the channel, Live Law reports.
The Centre banned the channel on January 31. A single bench and a division bench of the Kerala High Court had upheld the ban.
On Tuesday, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath stayed the ban after examining the files produced by the Ministry of Home Affairs raising security concerns regarding the company running the channel.
The bench said that a prima facie case was made out for the grant of interim relief for the channel. The channel, reportedly backed by the Kerala chapter of Jamaat-e-Islami, has been allowed to operate as usual.
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The Union has been asked to file the counter-affidavit by March 26. The bench indicated that it will go into the issue of the tenability of the sealed cover procedure.
Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the channel noted that today the Chief Justice of India, in another matter, disapproved the practice of giving reports in sealed covers.
Further, he said that the channel has been functioning for over 11 years and no security concerns were raised at any point. Security clearance is not necessary at the time of renewal, he pointed out.