New Delhi: On March 4, the Delhi High Court directed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to file a status report on the action taken against various TV channels, which are not members of the 'News Broadcasting Standards Association' (NBSA) for alleged violation of the 'Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act' in their news reports connecting actor Rakul Preet Singh with the Rhea Chakraborty drug case.
Justice Prathiba M Singh perused two status reports filed by the NBSA and the ministry on the action already taken.
While the ministry, represented by central government standing counsel Ajay Digpaul, said that necessary action was initiated against the channels and further advisory was sent to all private channels to adhere to the guidelines under the 'Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act', the NBSA informed the court that it has examined the actor's complaint and immediately issued various orders against the member channels.
The high court directed that if the petitioner had details of the channel links, it may be provided to the ministry for appropriate action. Regarding the content that was already taken down by the channels, the ministry was to obtain it directly from the channels.
It asked the ministry to file within six weeks another status report after necessary action is taken against erring channels under the 'Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act' and listed the matter for further hearing on May 20.
Advocate Aman Hingorani, representing Rakul, submitted that the ministry ought to take action against non-NBSA members under the Act and added that some of the links to the objectionable material, which was broadcast, was taken down by certain media channels.
He said that the petitioner would not be able to access such material to provide information to the ministry and it shall directly take the information from the channels.