KOCHI: The high court will pronounce its judgment on the appeal filed by Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV regarding revocation of its licence on Wednesday. A division bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly had on February 10 reserved the appeal challenging a single bench’s judgment of February 8 upholding the Union government’s decision to revoke the licence.
The division bench had heard extensive arguments by Supreme Court senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who represented the channel, and additional solicitor general (ASG) Aman Lekhi for the Union government.
Dave, who represented the channel operator Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd, had argued that security clearance is not required at the time of renewal of licence but only at the stage of initial grant of permission as per the guidelines relied on by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to revoke the licence. Opposing this, the ASG had argued that the guidelines should be viewed as a whole and its intent should be kept in mind while applying it.
