The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed till further orders the January 31 directive of India’s federal government revoking the licence of Malayalam news channel MediaOne and banning its telecast on security grounds.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said the news and current affairs channel will continue its operations as it was operating prior to the ban of telecast, ANI reported from New Delhi.

“We are of the view that the case of grant of interim relief has been made out. We order and direct that order dated 31 January 2022 of the Union government revoking the security clearance of Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd. stands stayed pending further orders”, the bench observed.

The petitioners (Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd and Pramod Raman editor of the channel and others) shall be permitted to continue operating the news and current affairs channel MediaOne on the same basis as it was operating prior to the revocation of clearances, the court said.

The bench passed the order after perusing the files filed by the Centre or the federal government on the basis of which security clearance was revoked and the Kerala High Court had passed the order upholding the ban on telecast.

The SC bench left the question open on whether the content of files on the basis of which the ban order was passed be given to the channel to enable it to defend itself.

The top court asked the Centre to file a detailed counter affidavit by March 26 on the appeals filed by the channel against the High Court order.

“I have been running my business since 2011 and I have millions of viewers. Now I have been shut down and 382 people are out of job,” MediaOne counsel Dave said, adding that permission for downlinking was granted for five years in 2019.

He said, no media channel will be safe if this principle is accepted. Everyone can be shut down.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Centre, said he needs a week to file a detailed affidavit, and granting them interim relief would mean granting them actual relief.

On March 10, the top court had sought response from the Centre on the channel’s plea of against the Kerala High Court order upholding the Centre’s decision to ban its telecast on security grounds.

It had asked the Centre to place on record the file, which was relied on by the high court.

The Kerala High Court had upheld the Centre’s decision to bar telecast of the Malayalam news channel and dismissed the plea of Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd, which operates MediaOne, challenging the federal government’s January 31 decision.

The high court had said that the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to deny security clearance was based on intelligence inputs received from various agencies.

The channel had contended that MHA clearance was only required at the time for fresh permission/licence and not at the time of renewal.

It had also contended that according to the uplinking and downlinking guidelines, security clearance was only required at the time of application for fresh permission and not at the time of renewal of licence.