NEW DELHI: A Delhi High Court judge Justice Prathiba M Singh on Thursday recused from hearing a plea filed by JNU student Shehla Rashid Shora seeking an unambiguous and unequivocal apology from Zee News and its former anchor Sudhir Choudhary for airing an alleged one-sided defamatory broadcast. Her plea contended that she was “vilified and slandered” solely on the basis of statements by her estranged father without taking or airing her version of the story.
Shehla also sought modification of the News Broadcasters and Digital Standards Authority’s (NBDSA) order of March 31, 2022, which directed the channel to remove the video from their website, YouTube, and other links. The TV channel had refused to direct the channel to air an apology, and stated that the programme aired by the news channel lacked objectivity, and impartiality and had presented only ‘one side of the story’.
As the counsel for Zee News sought more time to file the response in the matter during the hearing, the judge recused from further hearing. “Let this matter be listed before another bench,” the court said. Earlier on September 16 last year, Justice Singh issued notice to NBDSA, Zee News and Chaudhary and sought a reply in the matter within six weeks. Rashid had also written to the NBDSA contending that the programme had implied that she is involved in “anti-national activities” and was “funding terror”.
After the NBDSA ordered the news channel to take down the show, she was not quite satisfied that the association did not direct the Zee News to issue an apology to her post which, so she moved the High Court seeking modification of the NBDSA order seeking court’s direction to Zee and Chaudhary to issue an unambiguous and unequivocal apology to her.