Chennai: In an interim relief Anand VikatanThe Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Central Government to unblock the website of the Tamil Media platform as it had removed the controversial cartoon of PM Narendra Modi.
Justice D. Bharath Chakraborty said that public access to the entire website is not necessarily necessary BlockedAs the court remains to decide whether cartoon would come under speech and freedom of expression, or whether it affects friendly relations with foreign nations.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I & B) was asked to immediately restore public access, after which it received a mail Vikatan The magazine, without waiting for a copy of the interim order from the High Court.
The judge also instructed Vikatan To temporarily remove the cartoon and inform the Ministry of I & B about it.
While the cartoon, who showed Modi during a meeting with US President Donald Trump, shook chains during a meeting on 10 February, the I & B ministry blocked public reach at the site without any reason.
After 24 hours, the publishers were informed about the action taken under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The section empowers the government to block information from public reach in specific circumstances, including India’s interest, protecting, protecting, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order, or stopping the commission of any cognizable offense related to the above.
On 25 February, after a preliminary investigation, the I & B ministed that the website would be blocked under the IT Act as it was affecting “foreign relations”.
Later, Vikatan Appealing against the orders of the Ministry, a petition was filed before the Madras High Court.
Anand Vikatan Editor and publisher of magazine T. Murugan told Thrint that the cartoon was temporarily removed on the basis of the order of the Madras High Court and was waiting for the site to be restored.
Murugan said, “As we are always committed to freedom of expression, we will continue to fight against the freedom of journalism.”
Meanwhile, HC directed the lawyer to file a counter affidavit to the lawyer representing the I & B ministry and posted the matter for further hearing on 21 March.
Did the cartoon affect foreign relations?
As VikatanThe magazine’s website was permanently blocked in India based on the recommendations of the Department of Telecommunications from the Ministry of I & B.
Present for senior advocate Vijay Narayan VikatanArgued that the cartoon was just an artistic expression of a political expression and said that there was no basis for blocking the website.
“Cartoon does not harm the sovereignty or dignity of the nation. It was only an artistic expression of political criticism and is protected under the right to freedom of free speech and journalism, ”he argued.
However, Additional Solicitor General Earl Sundarson said the cartoon has violated the IT Act that gives the central government a grant to restrict fundamental rights for valid reasons. He also argued that the cartoon “affected” affects foreign relations.
Cartoon, Narayanan protested, did not harm Indo-US-friendly relations. He also informed the court that the Central Government had not given the details of the complainant, on the basis of which the public reach on the entire website was blocked.
After listening to the arguments, in the validity of the case’s merits and the validity of blocking the website, the court said that it is a major issue to be determined whether the cartoon falls under the artistic expression and freedom of journalism, or it comes under the scope of Section 69A of the IT Act.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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