Plea in Delhi HC to direct govt to permit outgoing PCI panel to function

A plea has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the government to permit the outgoing committee of the Press Council of India (PCI) to continue till the newly constituted 13th panel is established and starts functioning.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher has sought the response of the Centre and the PCI on the plea filed by a journalist.

The plea has also sought direction to the Centre to notify the newly selected members of the PCI in terms of 13th committee and publish the gazette notification in this regard.

It further sought a direction that the meeting being held by the PCI chairman without the requisite quorum be declared null and void.

The plea by Anil Kumar Sharma sought that the government be directed to permit the functioning of outgoing PCI committee, which was constituted for the period of 2014-17, as the new committee has not been notified owing to the stay granted by the high court in a related matter last month.

It claimed that the PCI chairman continued to hold meeting with the handful members who are nominated by the government.

The petitioner's advocate Vijay Kumar Sharma said that the court has listed the plea for July 30 along with the pending petition by the Indian Newspapers Society (INS) against rejection of nomination of Hormusji N Cama, owner of Mumbai Samachar weekly and a member of the INS, in the category of medium newspapers.

The court had in April stayed the decision of the PCI insofar as it relates to rejecting the nomination of Cama.

Sharma, in his plea, claimed that after the selection of the committee in March which was signed by the members and their organisations, there was no occasion to raise any objection in the selection but the INS raised the objection and filed a petition in the high court challenging the March 20 decision.

The plea said that as a result of the stay order of the court, the committee was unable to function. It said no meeting should have been held by the chairman without completing the quorum of less than 11 members.

In the earlier petition, filed by INS, it has alleged that the PCI chairman misread the provisions of the Press Council Act and "wrongly exercised" its power in rejecting the nomination.

Claiming that the decision was "perverse", the INS said the council's decision should be set aside as it was "bad, illegal and void".

According to the Press Council Act, the council shall consist of a Chairman and 28 other members. The chairman had said that the nomination of the editors among working journalist categories did not contain twice the number of members to be nominated.

INS has said in the petition that Cama was a member of the PCI in its 12th term and was seeking nomination to the council in the 13th term.

The INS, which comprises owners of big, medium and small newspapers in India, has sought a direction to the PCI chairman to recall and set aside the March 20 decision and forbear from taking any steps in furtherance of the decision.