India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Upholding the decision of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to cancel the license of Malayalam news channel MediaOne, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday rejected the petition filed by Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited.
MBL that runs the new channel had, challenged the order of the IB Ministry.
Passing the order, single-judge bench of Justice N Nagaresh said that intelligence inputs justify the denial of security clearance to the channel.
“I have gone through the files. I find that the Ministry has called for report from various intelligence agencies. Based on those inputs, it was found that security clearance should not be renewed. There are inputs which justify the decision. Therefore, I am dismissing the petition,” the Live Law quoted the judge having said.
The judge noted national security was the responsibility of the executive and the legislature and judiciary could not interfere.
“The concept of good governance takes within its ambit a secure state. Ensuring national security necessarily involves pre-empting any possibilities that may result in insecurities.”
However, Justice Nagaresh stressed that national security was an executive responsibility where the legislature and the judiciary only had complimentary roles.
