[LIVE UPDATES] SC Hearing On Plea Against Sudarshan TV's 'UPSC Jihad' Show
Justice Chandrachud: Whenever you refer to the Civil Services, you refer to the ISI and that is a serious concern as you show it as a conspiracy by Muslims. Of course do your investigative journalism, but can we allow such implications being made ? How will you deal with 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.
Justice Chandrachud now refers to the reaction elicited by the audience.
“We have no problem that you’re referring to an NGO and their funds. The difficult arises when you implicate an entire community to infiltrate the bureaucracy. This part becomes a real issue.”
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”.
Justice Chandrachud refers to the live chat with comments such as “Chor ki daari mein tinka. Yahaan pe chor bhi hain, daari bhi hain”.
The Bench asks Divan to look at the tenor of the chat.
Justice Chandrachud: Whenever it shows that the competitor is taking advantage, similar images are show.
Now the Bench refers to the live chat between Divan’s client and others which has been compiled by Adv. Shahrukh Alam.
Justice Chandrachud: A pictorial representation of a Muslim is being shown with a beard, skull cap and green face, with flames in the background.
Justice Chandrachud: There is a background of fire and flames. Throughout the clip, there are flames in the background.
The Bench goes on to state that allegations are being made and presented in an inciteful manner.
Justice Chandrachud: After we analyse the programmes, see we are not on Mr. Owaisi as an individual, but the segment starts off with flames in the background and it states that Owaisi has urged for Muslims to join the Civil Services.
Justice Chandrachud: What happens in your affidavit is that your sidelining the speech while you’re distilling the facts. We get journalistic freedom, but first go to the annexures filed by the Petitioners first.