Want to ‘tighten up’ self-regulatory mechanism for news channels: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said it wanted to “tighten up” the self-regulatory mechanism of monitoring TV news channels and granted four more weeks to News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) to come up with fresh guidelines.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of submissions that the NBDA was in consultation with its present and former chairpersons, Justice (retd) A K Sikri and R V Raveendran, respectively, for framing fresh guidelines.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for NBDA, sought four weeks to come up with fresh guidelines.

Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Union government has already formulated a three-tier mechanism, the first of which is self-regulation. The plea by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MLA Sunil Prabhu, who as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena had filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs in 2022, alleged Speaker Rahul Narwekar is deliberately delaying the adjudication despite the verdict of the apex court.