Supreme Court halts blackout order against Karnataka TV channel
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The Supreme Court has temporarily halted a Karnataka High Court order that had stopped the broadcast of the private TV channel, Power TV, due to licensing issues.
Power TV had recently made extensive coverage of an alleged sex scandal involving suspended JDS leader Prajwal Revanna and his brother Suraj Revanna.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, leading the Supreme Court bench, described the blackout order as "sheer political vendetta," suggesting that the move was aimed at silencing the channel's voice. "The more we hear you, the more we are convinced this is political vendetta... the idea was to completely blank out his voice. The state is duty-bound to protect his freedom of speech and expression," remarked the Chief Justice.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta contested the Chief Justice's observation, asserting that the issue arose from a February 9 show cause notice regarding the channel subletting its uplink and downlinking license, not from political motives.
The Supreme Court has scheduled the next hearing for Monday.
Previously, the Karnataka High Court had restrained Power TV from broadcasting until July 9, after discovering that their license had expired in 2021.
Justice SR Krishna Kumar issued the interim order following petitions from IPS officer BR Ravikanthe Gowda and former MLC HM Ramesh Gowda, who claimed the channel was continuing its broadcast activities without a valid license.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry also informed the court that proceedings had been initiated against the company running the channel.
