Centre to SC: Zee's licences will not be scraped

The Centre assured the Supreme Court on 5 August 2013 that it would not precipitate matters by cancelling the broadcasting licences of Zee News and Zee Business channels after they aired alleged defamatory news against Jindal group. 

Soon after the Zee channels aired the alleged defamatory programmes against the Jindal group, the information and broadcasting ministry on April 18 had issued notices to the channels asking them to show cause why their licences not be cancelled. This notice was challenged in the apex court. 

Appearing for the TV channels, senior advocate Harish Salve argued that the I&B ministry appeared to have pre-judged the contents of the programme, adjudication of which was pending before the courts through the defamation suit filed by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. 

However, solicitor general Mohan Parasaran told a bench of Justices A K Patnaik and J S Khehar that the government did not want to precipitate matters and assured that the licences would not be cancelled pending investigations which would continue unhindered by the pendency of the suit. 

The TV channels through its counsel Pratibha Singh alleged that the I&B ministry, by issuing the show cause notice, appeared to have "already made up its mind that the programmes shown by the petitioners are violative of the programming code and are defamatory, false and half-truths without even hearing the petitioners". 

"Similar allegations are pending adjudication before the high court of Bombay in the defamation suit filed by JSPL and are also subject matter of criminal investigations. A bare perusal of the show cause notice of April 18, 2013 clearly proves that the Union government is acting at the behest of respondent - Naveen Jindal - and is determined to harass the petitioner irrespective of the disputed nature of the allegations made against the petitioners by Naveen Jindal and his company," Singh said.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/2984-centre-to-sc-zee-s-licences-will-not-be-scraped.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/2984-centre-to-sc-zee-s-licences-will-not-be-scraped.html