UP assembly okays contempt proceedings against TV channel

The UP assembly passed on 10 December the house probe panel recommendations by a voice vote to serve a privilege notice on a private TV channel and summon its executives for not cooperating in the investigation about its sting operation into alleged interference by a senior minister during the Muzaffarnagar riots.

Later, both the Houses were adjourned sine die after passing second supplementary budget for 2013-2014 worth Rs 3619.76 crore.

The committee also found the channel breaching the privilege of the House as they raised unconstitutional points in their letters sent to the committee and the way they exchanged letters with it. The letter written by the channel's head of Legal and Compliances and Company Secretary and the vice-president, Internal Audit, stated: "As you know that the matter is currently sub-judice and the committee constituted by the Central government and the ministry of I & B has already taken cognisance of the issue and have further heard the parties. We have already appeared before the joint parliamentary committee and they are to deliver their view on the telecast. In these circumstances, we would request the state government to keep the said communication in abeyance."

Founding the channel guilty of contempt of house, the panel sought its intervention in directing the executive director the channel to provide raw footage with regards to sting operation.

All parties, barring BJP, supported the resolution to summon the executives by voice-vote.

The Speaker, however, denied the allegation and said that the committee was formed only after house passed the resolution. "Since all parties gave the names of their representatives who would be part of the committee but BJP didn't provide any name, I selected one of the BJP members. However, the party asked him to resign and didn't give any other name," the speaker said and added there was nothing wrong in the process thus.

The House which began on a stormy note on December 5 with opposition parties hitting out at the state government for overlooking the plight of the sugarcane farmers again on the last day saw cane price issue being raised in the assembly. The BSP members accused the government of striking a deal with private sugar mills over the cane price and walked out of the assembly to protest the same.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/3827-up-assembly-okays-contempt-proceedings-against-tv-channel.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/3827-up-assembly-okays-contempt-proceedings-against-tv-channel.html