The Central Government asked the Supreme Court to not lay down any further guidelines for the mainstream media and restrict itself to the matter of Sudarshan News Show. In the affidavit, Centre said that “if the court decides to undertake the exercise, it should first be undertaken with regard to digital media as there already exists sufficient framework and judicial pronouncements with regard to electronic media and print media.”
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting filed the affidavit regarding the Sudarshan TV’s show ‘Bindas Bol’, headed by editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke, which claimed to “expose” on conspiracy to infiltrate Muslims in Civil Services. In the affidavit, the government said the issue of “balancing between the journalist freedom and responsible journalism is a field already occupied either by the statutory provisions made by Parliament or by the judgments of the court.”
“It is submitted that while in a mainstream media (whether electronic or print), the publication telecast is a one-time act, the digital media has faster reach from wider range of viewership/ readership and has the potential to become viral because of several electronic applications like Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook,” the affidavit further read.
A three-judge bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud on September 15 restraining the channel from broadcasting the remaining episodes of the program. According to the apex court, the show was “vilification of the Muslims.” The channel had already telecasted four episodes after the government’s nod on September 9.
The order came after advocate Firoz Iqbal Khan filed a petition while submitting the scripts of the program. Through those transcripts, petitioner claimed that rest of the episodes would be offensive to the Muslims entering the government services.