DHIRAJ KUMAR 'BHARADWAJ' Vs. NEWS BORADCASTING STANDARD AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner before this Court is aggrieved from telecast of an ad film titled "Third Eye of Nirmal Baba". In the aforesaid film, according to the petitioner, Nirmal Baba advises his devotees to eat Samosa or Red Chatni or patties, to remove photos of ancestors from the place of worship. According to the petitioner, on seeing the film his family members and various other members of the public started eating the materials suggested by Nirmal Baba. It is further alleged in the petition that in many advertisements Nirmal Baba suggests the member of public to remove Shivlingas from their house as well as pictures from the place of worship and after seeing that advertisement his family members became superstitious and were willing to remove the Shivlinga from the house and photos of the ancestors from the place of worship. The petitioner is accordingly seeking the following reliefs in this writ petition:

(2.) THE learned counsel appearing for respondent No.1 submits that the said respondent is not a TRP rating agency and has no control over respondent No.3 which is a TRP rating agency. He further states that respondent No.1 is a regulatory mechanism set up by News Broadcasters Association to lay down and enforce the broadcasting standards, and only those broadcasting companies that are members of the News Broadcasters Association are amenable to its discipline.

(3.) AS far as respondent No.2 is concerned the writ petition does not disclose, in what manner and under which authority of law the said respondent can prevent the telecast of ad film in question. In any case, no direction to respondent No.1 can be issued, unless the channel broadcasting the impugned programme/advertisement is made a party to the writ petition.