SC and HC serve notices to T-MSOs

Responding to a petition filed by ABN Andhra Jyothy on imposing ban on telecasting the news programs in Telangana, Supreme Court has served notices to Centre, State government, ten districts’ collectors, Hyderabad city police commissioner, T-MSOs Association and to its president-Subash Reddy yesterday. The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Kuriyan, Justice Joseph and Justice Prapulla C Panth gave three weeks’ time to respond on this case.

Advocate AK Ganguli, who argued on behalf of ABN Management, told the court that Telangana MSOs have stopped airing of two news channels in Telangana state from June 17th due to political pressures and not revived till now despite several appeals made by the media, political parties and even central government. So, he argued that the T-MSOs have violated the constitutional right of ABN news channel to telecast the news in the state. He appealed the court to take action on the concerned and also order the T-MSOs start telecasting ABN news channel programs in the state.

State High Court also served notices to T-MSOs yesterday. The High Court bench comprising Justice Kalyansen Gupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar responding to a petition filed by V Murali from Kotthapeta in Rangareddy district on the same issue has served notices to T-MSOs and gave them two weeks’ time to respond to the petition and adjourned the case to December 15th.

If, the apex court is convinced that T-MSOs have violated the constitutional rights of the news channels and Telangana government fails to safeguard its constitutional rights, then Telangana Government may face an humiliating experience in the court. Otherwise, the ban on the both news channels may become permanent in Telangana state. So, one can assume that the fight between Telangana government and the news channel has reached peak and in its last leg.