New Delhi, March 15 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the ban on Kerala’s Malayalam channel Media One and allowed it to resume broadcast again pending a final adjudication in the case. A Bench headed by Justice Dr D Y Chandrachud passed the order after hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP). The court stayed the January 31 order of the Central government prohibiting Media One from broadcasting. “The stay will continue until further orders. The channel shall operate as it did before the revocation of its licence,” the apex court said. The question of whether the Centre should disclose to the petitioners its files leading to the revocation of the licence has been kept open.
The Centre has to file its counter affidavit by March 26, the Supreme Court said. MediaOne had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court by filing a SLP after the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court upheld the ban imposed on it by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. On January 31, the Ministry suspended the channel’s telecast citing security concerns. A single judge of the Kerala High Court granted the channel an interim relief allowing it to telecast till the case was decided. But Justice N. Nagaresh, after perusing the files from the Home Ministry, held that it has found intelligence inputs that justify the denial of security clearance to the channel. The Ministry had produced the files before the court in a sealed cover.
