Bombay HC Grants Interim Protection To TV Channel Banned By MIB [Read the Order]

A single vacation bench of the Bombay high Court today granted an interim stay on a ban imposed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting(MIB) on a TV channel for showing “objectionable content”. The ban was imposed by MIB on Care World which is a 24/7 health and wellness channel, is in accordance with Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act.

Justice MS Karnik who was hearing the petition filed by the channel, asked the MIB to file it’s reply by November 23. The interim stay on the ban will stand till November 24, after which the petitioner will have to move court before a regular bench for further hearing, once court reopens after vacations.

In an order dated November 2, 2016 Care World TV was prohibited by MIB for one week effective from November 9. Mayur Khandeparkar, petitioner’s counsel in the case argued that although a show cause notice was issued to them and a hearing was given by the competent authority, various contentions and submissions raised have not been taken into consideration hence MIB’s order was not a reasonable one.

The Ministry in it’s show cause notice had alleged that indecent content was being telecast by the petitioner however the petition filed refutes these claims. Apparently the channel had telecast programmes on sexual disorders where various doctors had given their opinions.

This comes a few days after the centre informed the apex court that it had decided to review  the one day ban of NDTV India for allegedly revealing “strategically-sensitive information” during the course of its coverage of the anti-terror operations at the Pathankot airbase earlier this year.

Read the Order here.