The Union government informed the Supreme Court that a fresh show-cause notice had been issued to Sudarshan TV on Monday with regard to the content of their controversial show, ‘Bindas Bol’, which accuses Muslims of “infiltrating” the civil services with the help of funding from terror-linked organisations abroad.
Appearing before a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the inter-ministerial committee had watched the episodes of the show. The proceedings on the basis of the notice would be held on October 6.
The court agreed to stand over the hearing till October 26.
In the previous hearing, the government told the court about the first notice issued on September 23 to Sudarshan TV under the Cable TV Network Act with regard to the show content.
Stay on telecast
The court had stayed the further telecast of the programme episodes on September 15. Four episodes had been telecast by the time it issued the injunction.
“Had the court not intervened, the programme would have been over by now”, Justice Chandrachud had told Mr. Mehta.
The government had taken up the matter in the midst of the Bench examining questions of hate speech and offensive speech in the media. The Bench was looking into the exact point when free speech in the media crossed the Rubicon to breach the dignity of a community.
Advocate Shadan Farasat, for one of the parties, said the questions on hate speech and offensive speech in media should be examined by the court irrespective of what the government decided with regard to the Sudarshan TV issue.
The court is also examining the larger aspect of strengthening the self-regulatory mechanism for electronic media. It had observed that the manner of portrayal of the Muslim community in ‘Bindas Bol’ was “plainly hurtful”.