[LIVE UPDATES] SC Hearing On Plea Against Sudarshan TV's 'UPSC Jihad' Show

Divan: He’s joining the dots. He’s presenting a thesis. Please allow him to complete the thesis. This “flames” issue, I find it quite offensive. I don’t watch TV, but every time I’ve viewed something like this, there are flames everywhere. Everything is breaking news.

Divan: Look at these clips. No one has said that I’ve doctored them. It is hard enough to hold the attention of a person in this Instagram age, but no one has alleged that these are false. He presents that and puts them in a story and presents his point of view.

Divan: The nature of the medium, that is TV, requires simplification. So there will be simplification in terms of the graphs. He’s not weighing up and down, he’s trying to sell to a viewer a particular view. It should not invite a ban, it probably falls short of journalism.

Divan: However, my client has done the research, done the documentation. Look at the programme as a whole and the overall impression, purpose and message of the programme. If you find that it is fine, then it must be allowed to be continued.

Divan: The anchor is alive to the fact that this is before the Supreme Court. He’s willing to revisit the issue if a problem is found. I believe a cuss word here or a line there is nothing something which ought to ignite the jurisdiction of this court to impose prior restraint.

Divan: If there is a Chinese-funded organisation, then that information would be out there. The information must be out there. If there is a question of merit, certainly appointments should be made. 

Divan: We have a situation today at our boundary, where a country People’s Republic of China has led to our jawans facing problem after problem. This is certainly a story which needs to be out there. 

Divan: I have not referred to any objection to any gentleman from any community joining the UPSC. I am referring to the Affidavit. We have found that a certain organisation is foreign-funded and we have presented that.

Divan: You have to look at the programme as a whole, or at least the 4 episodes out there. When you do that, the thrust of the programme is not parse it though one tweet here or one sentence there. 

Divan responds to the questions.

“This has been derived from supremely narrow sampling. Let me first give you the framework and then answer the questions”.