By Sanya Talwar
New Delhi, Sept 15 2020: The Supreme Court on September 15 restrained a rightwing television channel until further orders from telecasting the remaining episodes of a controversial show.
The bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and K M Joseph was hearing a petition filed against the show hosted by Sudarshan TV News’ chief editor Suresh Chavhanke on the ground that it communalized Muslims’ entry into Union Public Services Commission (UPSC).
The ‘Bindas Bol’ show speaks about Muslims clearing the UPSC exam.
“We order and direct, pending further orders of the court, Sudarshan News TV is restrained from telecasting the show in continuation of the shows already telecast either under the same or a different caption,” the court ruled. It also observed that prima facie the object of the show was to vilify Muslims.
The top court in the order noted factually incorrect statements made in the program regarding the upper age limit and number of attempts for Muslims in UPSC exams.
“The edifice of a stable democratic society under a regime of constitutional rights and values is founded on the co-existence of communities. India is a melting pot of civilizations, cultures and values. Any attempt to vilify a community must be viewed with great disfavor by this court which is a custodian of constitutional rights,” the court observed.
Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the channel and Chavhanke, staunchly opposed the stay on the telecast by arguing that a prior restraint order will violate free speech.
Claiming that the show was part of “investigative journalism,” Divan denied that there was any vilification of the Muslim community and asserted that the show was about a journalist unearthing details about foreign funding from sources that are not necessarily friendly with India.
When Divan said that it was a “freedom of speech issue,” Justice Chandrachud disagreed.
“This is not a freedom of speech issue. When you say students of Jamia are part of a conspiracy to infiltrate civil services, that is not permissible. You cannot target one community and brand them a particular manner. This is an insidious attempt to malign a community” the judge said.
“As a Supreme Court of the nation, we cannot allow you to say that Muslims are infiltrating civil services. You cannot say that the journalist has absolute freedom doing this,” the judge added.
Source: livelaw.in