Supreme Court (SC) has recently set aside the ban by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on MediaOne channel, a Malayalam news channel critical of government policies. Supreme Court has delivered a landmark judgement preserving the right to freedom of speech for media.
The MediaOne case has highlighted the capacity of the Supreme Court to go against political forces reaffirming its institutional capacity. The judgment has also touched upon a few issues which are important for a democracy.
- Sealed Cover Jurisprudence: a practise to accept affidavits by the government in form of sealed envelope, so that only the concerned judge reads the content. This practice goes against natural justice, where a party has a right to know the evidence presented against them. Supreme Court has taken a note of the habit to accept sealed cover by High court and has asked to reduce the practice.
- Government is not equal to nation: SC has underlined that government is not equal to nation, hence criticism of the government policies is not criticism of the nation. Therefore, this cannot be a ground for citing national security.
- Admonishing the state against misuse of national security rhetoric: SC has commented that allowing the state to raise the national security ground to curb rights without any checks can lead to dangerous consequences.
The judgment has highlighted the resolve of the SC to protect the right of expression for the citizen and media. National Security forms part of the reasonable restrictions contained in Article 19(2). Yet, SC sought a deeper inspection of the issue and concluded that the government cannot raise national security without any substantial evidence.
However, the judgement falls short as it has not evolved a set of guidelines, to help determine which practices can be covered under national security, and hence be used to restrict the freedom of speech.
SC observed that claiming national security cannot be used to deprive court of judicial review powers. Therefore, a bold verdict has been given by SC to strengthen the fundamental rights in country, while reclaiming the eroding power and prestige of the judiciary.
