Delhi High Court issues fresh notice to Radio One FM channel

A petition was filed seeking revocation of the FM channel's licence for allegedly airing vulgar and obscene language

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a fresh notice to Radio One Ltd seeking its reply on a petition praying for the revocation of the FM channel's license for allegedly airing vulgar and obscene language on its airwaves.

Petitioner Krish Kalra had earlier approached the court against the content of the radio channel in its Drive Delhi show, aired on May 11, 14 and 18 and contended that the government had not met its obligation to monitor such objectionable content, in line with a October 2012 advisory issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The government counsel informed the bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar today, that the ministry has issued the channel a show cause notice, after the Broadcasting Engineering Consultants Ltd. (BECIL) sent a recording of the programme in question, but is yet to receive a response.

"In case they do not turn up before us with their reply, we will pass an ex-parte order against them," advocate Nitya Sharma, appearing on behalf of the government said.

The counsel representing BECIL also informed the court of the genuineness of the audio recording, which allegedly aired on the 94.3 MHz frequency operated by the channel on the respective dates.

The court has directed the FM channel to respond to today's notice by November 2.