The Supreme Court has intervened to pause a Karnataka High Court directive that halted the broadcast of private TV channel ‘Power TV’ due to an alleged lack of proper licensing. The channel had extensively covered an alleged sex scandal involving suspended JDS leader Prajwal Revanna and his brother Suraj Revanna.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, heading the bench, criticized the blackout as “sheer political vendetta,” emphasizing that the intent appeared to be silencing their voice completely. “The state is obligated to safeguard freedom of speech and expression,” remarked the Chief Justice, asserting that the actions against the channel seemed politically motivated.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta objected to the CJI’s characterization, arguing that the action was based on a February 9 show cause notice regarding the channel allegedly subletting its uplink and downlinking license.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to revisit the case on Monday.
Earlier, the Karnataka High Court had restrained ‘Power TV’ from broadcasting until July 9 after finding that their license had expired in 2021. Justice SR Krishna Kumar issued the interim order following petitions by IPS officer BR Ravikanthe Gowda and ex-MLC HM Ramesh Gowda, alleging that the channel continued to broadcast despite the expired license.
The Information and Broadcast ministry informed the court that proceedings have been initiated against the company managing the channel.