KRISHNA SARAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has filed this Public Interest Litigation questioning the status of the programs that are being depicted through a telecast on various television channels that have been reflected in the petition and the supplementary affidavit filed today of the programs of the respondent no. 2 'Nirmal Baba', which the petitioner alleges to be in violation of the provisions of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 particularly Rule 6 thereof which is extracted herein under:

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioner has invited the attention of the Court particularly to clause (j) of Rule 6(1) of the said Rules that the program which is being exhibited on the channels by respondent no. 2 clearly encourages superstition and blind belief which is a violation of the Programme Code aforesaid and thus any permission to any channel in violation of the said rules deserves to be rescinded forthwith. He has further invited the attention of the Court to the policy guidelines for down-linking of the television channels promulgated on 11.11.2005, a copy whereof has been filed as Annexure no. 2 to the writ petition that have been amended from time to time. Learned counsel has particularly pointed out the provisions of clause 6.1 of the said guidelines which is extracted herein under :

(3.) The said guidelines clearly provide that if any permission has been granted and the channel is found to have allowed it to be used for transmitting any such content which fails to comply with the directions and the guidelines then the permission shall be revoked. It is, therefore, submitted that any violation of the rules as referred to herein above clearly dis-entitles the channel concerned to further continue to enjoy the permission as granted under the aforesaid guidelines.