Marathi news channel proprietors move: HC against 1-month suspension order

The plea was listed before a single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad on Friday where the court, after noting the petitioners’ submissions, observed, “Senior advocate Mr. Jayant Mehta (appearing for the petitioner) in all fairness states that he will take all the corrective measures and necessary steps to demonstrate that the activities of the channel is under its control.” The matter is now listed on January 19.

This the second time the channel has been taken off air. In July 2023, Lokshahi Marathi was taken off air soon after it broke a story on an alleged “sex video” of BJP leader Kirit Somaiya.

The plea states that the petitioner had replied to the ministry’s November 17, 2023 show-cause notice, wherein it was explained that there is no third-party transfer as alleged by the ministry.

“In fact, it was pointed out that both Zora Traders Ltd. (petitioner No1) and M/s Swaraj Marathi Broadcasting LLP (petitioner No 2) were alter egos of Mr Bahubali Shah (petitioner No 3). The petitioner No 3 owns 75% of shareholding in petitioner No 1 and similarly owns 51% stake in petitioner No. 2. In such circumstances, there is no question of third-party transfer, as alleged or otherwise. Both petitioner No 1 and petitioner No 2 were promoted and controlled by petitioner No 3,” the plea submits.

As per the plea, the January 9 suspension decision has been passed “without adhering to principles of natural justice and is bad in law as it violates the freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution of India”. It states that the minister, as the “final decision-making authority”, ought to have heard the petitioners before passing the order of taking the channel off-air by suspending the petitioners’ up-linking and down-linking permission. However, in this case, there had been no hearing given by the minister, states the plea.

It further says that the ministry failed to appreciate that switching-off of the channel for 30 days is a “death nail in the channel of the petitioners” and will have grave consequences not only for the petitioners, but also for its over 300 employees.

The suspension order made various findings, including that the “uplinking and downlinking charges of the teleport in respect of news TV channel Lokshahi Marathi, are not incurred by M/s Zora Traders Ltd for itself but on behalf of the non-permitted entity M/s Swaraj Marathi Broadcasting LLP”. It further said that Zora Traders, which is the permitted entity “neither possesses the basic infrastructure for content creation” like a studio nor does it incur any expenditure on manpower which develops the content. It further said the entire process of content creation/generation is done by Swaraj Marathi Broadcasting LLP, which is not a permitted entity.

The plea states that the petitioners obtained renewal of its permission from the ministry for up-link and down-link of the channel in February 2022, whereas the Up-linking and Downlinking Guidelines were issued seven months after the renewal permission in November 2022. It further states that the guidelines can’t be made applicable retrospectively.