Comedy Central appeals to Delhi HC against 10 day ban on transmission

New Delhi: Entertainment channel Comedy Central today filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court against a single judge order upholding the Centre’s decision to stop its transmission for ten days for airing “obscene” dialogues and “vulgar” words besides being derogatory to women. Filing the appeal before the bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath, the channel said prohibition of transmission will cause “irreparable” loss and damage its popularity. The bench, which could not take up the matter due to lawyer’s strike in the high court, has fixed the matter for hearing tomorrow. In its appeal, Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd said, “Prohibition of transmission will cause irreparable loss and damage to the appellant. It will also put an end to the popularity and the viability, commercially or otherwise, of the channel.” [caption id=“attachment_819047” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The channel also claimed that transmission is its fundamental right and said, “The right to operate and broadcast television channel is protected under Article 19 of the Constitution. In this view of the matter, the appellants submit that they are entitled to fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.” “The manner in which respondent (Centre) has interpreted the policies and imposed penalty in complete violation of the fundamental rights of the appellant is not only anachronistic to the constitutional value of liberal democracy but also inconsistent with prevailing practices worldwide,” the appeal also said. On May 24, the single judge of High Court upheld the Centre’s decision banning the transmission of the channel for ten days ie from May 25 to June 4. Accepting the recommendation of Inter Ministerial Council (IMC), the I&B Ministry on May 17 had asked Comedy Central to go off air from today till June 4 for telecasting “offensive” words in ‘Stand Up Club’ and ‘Popcorn’ programmes on May 26 and July 4 last year. The Ministry had prohibited channel’s transmission or retransmission for 10 days on any platform throughout India with effect from 00:01 hours on May 25 till 00:01 hours on June 4. Dismissing a plea of Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd, the single judge bench of the high court had said the penalty prohibiting the telecast of the channel for ten days cannot be termed as “excessive, harsh or unreasonable.” It had rejected the channel’s argument that the decision is discriminatory as the government had not consulted the Broadcasting Consumers Complaint Committee (BCCC) before imposition of the penalty. PTI Disclaimer: Comedy Central is a part of Network 18 which also owns Firstpost.