KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday upheld the order of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) revoking the license of Media One TV channel and removing the name of the channel from the list of the permitted channel.
Justice N Nagaresh issued the order on the petition filed by the Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, Kozhikode which owns the channel seeking to quash the order. The court also dismissed the petitions filed by employees of the channel and Kerala Union of Working Journalists.
The Judges observed that they have gone through the files of the Ministry of Home Affairs. "The MHA has called for various intelligence agencies. Based on the inputs from these agencies, it has been decided not to renew the security clearance. Hence, I am dismissing these petitions," the court said.
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S. Manu, Assistant Solicitor General, contended the MHA had denied the security clearance based on various intelligence inputs, which were sensitive and secret. Therefore, as a matter of policy and in the interest of national security, MHA could not disclose reasons for the denial of security clearance.
The channel's license had been rescinded after due application of the relevant aspects of the breach of security clearance. He also pointed out that even for the renewal of the licenses, security clearance from the MHA was mandatory. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry had followed scrupulously all the procedures before taking a final call on the issue. Moreover, the period of the license of the channel has expired.
S. Sreekumar, counsel for the petitioner, argued that the procedure adopted by the centre government to revoke the license was unheard of and illegal. It violated the Freedom of the press. The channel had been granted permission in 2011 for uplinking and delinking programs after giving security clearance by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA).
The security clearance was required only when a new channel was started. The company had applied for renewal of the license after the expiry of the 10 year license period. The guidelines on the uplinking and delinking programs did not stipulate that fresh security clearance needed to be obtained when the license was renewed. He pointed out that though the Centre had said that the MHA had denied a security clearance, it could not say what was the security breach committed by the channel. The channel had not caused any hindrance or interfered with the security of the nation.