The Supreme Court today has declined to entertain a writ petition filed by M/s Indira Television Limited & Anr., which runs Sakshi TV, alleging that the Andhra Pradesh authorities had blocked the television channel in a “targeted action” against it post the Lok Sabha elections in June 2024.

A Bench comprising Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe was informed that proceedings arising from the same dispute are presently pending before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), and the matter has been listed for hearing on the 12th, pursuant to the Supreme Court’s earlier direction to expedite the proceedings.

During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner submitted that there were additional aspects involved in the matter and sought a listing after four weeks. Responding to this, Justice Narasimha observed that the petitioner would have an appellate remedy and indicated that the Court was inclined to close the proceedings at this stage. The Bench noted that the matter would first be adjudicated by the TDSAT and could thereafter be taken up before the High Court in appeal.

On the petitioner’s plea that the case raised issues of a much wider nature, the court held that the Court had endeavoured to ensure that the petitioner obtained the appropriate statutory remedy by directing continuation of the matter before the Tribunal. The Bench observed that it would not be proper for the Supreme Court to continue hearing the same matter once the Tribunal’s jurisdiction had been invoked.

With these observations, the court has dismissed the writ petition while clarifying that all questions raised by the petitioner were kept open to be urged and contested before the Tribunal.

Appearances

Petitioner- Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, Sr. Adv. Mr. S. Niranjan Reddy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, AOR Ms. Rajeswari Mukherjee, Adv. Ms. Palak Arora, Adv. Mr. Vivek Rajan D.b, Adv.

Respondents- Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv. Ms. Vanshika Singh, Adv. Ms. Amrita Sarkar , AOR Mr. Ashish Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Kartik Gupta, Adv. Mr. Gitesh Sinha, Adv. Mr. Suyodhan, Adv. Mr. A. Sundaram, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ishaan George, AOR Mr. Shreeyash Uday Lalit, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Vats, Adv. Mr. Angad Pahal, Adv. Mr. Lavam Tyagi, Adv. Mr. Ishita Khurana, Adv. Mr. Aviral Kumar Mishra, Adv. Mr. Kunal Tandon, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sharath Sampath, AOR Mr. Manikya Khanna, Adv. Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv. Ms. Kavya Singh, Adv. Ms. Anushri Joshi, Adv. Ms. Natasha Singh, Adv. Mr. Swapnil Gupta, Adv. Mr. Ujjal Banerjee, AOR Mr. Nasser Hussain, Adv. Mr. Harshit Gupta, Adv. Mr. Srikant Ramteke, Adv.