New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear the final arguments in the petition against MediaOne's ban in the first week of August after its summer recess. The court today directed the Central government to reply to the petition within four weeks.
The court said the Centre could not extend the time to file an affidavit in reply. When MediaOne's counsel Dushyant Dave requested that the time to file the Centre's response not be extended any further, the court informed the Centre of the same.
Earlier, the court had been given two extensions. The court had directed the Centre to file an affidavit within three weeks against the ban, but the Centre had asked for two more weeks. Then another four weeks is allowed.
The bench headed by DY Chandrachud, and comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath is considering the petitions filed by MediaOne management, editor Pramod Raman and the journalists' union against the Centre's ban of its transmission in the form of non-renewal of the transmission licence of the news channel.
The channel resumed broadcasting on March 16 after the Supreme Court stayed through an interim order the Centre's order banning the broadcast on March 15.