Communal tone will get bad name to the country: Supreme Court

Everything in India is shown with a communal angle which ultimately brings a bad name to the country. The court said that it has never come across a public channel, twitter, facebook, YouTube which responds and shows any accountability about the Institutions and people it writes badly about, observed the Supreme Court.

Hyderabad: Everything in India is shown with a communal angle which ultimately brings a bad name to the country. The court said that it has never come across a public channel, twitter, facebook, YouTube which responds and shows any accountability about the Institutions and people it writes badly about, observed the Supreme Court in a petition linked to the Tablighi Jamaat gathering last year in Delhi that was blamed for a spike in Covid cases.

The bench also comprising of Justice Surya Kant and Justice AS Bopanna made these observations while hearing a plea filed by Jamiat Ulama i Hind seeking directions to refrain media from spreading hate linking the spread of corona with the Nizamuddin Markaz event.

The court questioned the central government about regulation of web portals as for TV and papers there are regulatory bodies. The court told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for centre that if he sees one minute on YouTube he will realise the distortion, anyone starts anything.

Mehta informed the court that there is a statutory mechanism under the Cable TV act and for web portals there is a separate set of rules.

CJI also expressed his concern that only powerful people's voice is shown by some sections of media and common man's or institution's voice is not shown.

Mehta pleaded before the court that there are pleas before different high courts pertaining to IT rules which shall be transferred to the top court so that a holistic view can be taken on it.

Court allowed the transfer and asked the centre to file a rejoinder in media spreading hate matter. The matter will be heard again after six weeks.