Kerala High Court gives interim relief to NBA in plea challenging IT rules

The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Centre not to take any coercive action against the members of News Broadcas­ters Association (NBA), which represents several news channels, over non-compliance of the new IT rules.

Justice P B Suresh Kumar also issued notice to the Centre and sought its stand on the plea by NBA which has contended that the new IT Rules give government authorities “excessive powers” to “unreasonably and impermissibly restrict” the freedom of speech and expression of the media.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, who appeared for the NBA, said that under the new IT rules, a Joint Secretary would be heading the oversight mechanism which would supervise the self-regulatory body headed by a retired judge.

Under the rules, media companies or their associations have to form self-regulatory bodies which would be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or High Courts or an eminent person.