Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 17: In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking check on indecent, vulgar and inappropriate advertisements and programmes on various Television Channels, Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice Mohd Yaqoob Mir and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur has issued notice to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Advertising Standards Council of India, Central Board of Film Certifications, State of J&K and State Law Ministry.
In the PIL filed by Law student of University of Jammu namely Paras Gupta, it has been submitted that television viewers are being forced to watch vulgar, obscene, defamatory, false, indecent and immoral contents, which otherwise no prudent person would ever like to watch with his/her family and especially children.
“There are a lot of programmes/advertisements which are providing false information to the consumers about the products and some advertisements are also encouraging blind belief and superstition, which are difficult to be proved and are misleading”, the petitioner said, adding “some of the programmes and advertisements show the stature of a woman in an inappropriate and undignified manner in order to sponsor their product”.
“The situation becomes so awkward when viewers go through such type of derogatory advertisements which portrays a women in a sexual and indecent manner”, the petitioner said, adding “such advertisements also violate the constitutional guarantees provided by the Constitution of India to women and other persons”.
Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi and Advocate Ankesh Chandel appearing for the PIL submitted that the idea behind the creation of the regulatory authorities was to ensure that the viewers are not subjected to uncensored content on the television. “But regulatory agencies are acting as a silent spectators and their silence is forcing the general public to face a lot of humiliation/embarrassment especially when they are watching the television along with their family including minors”, he added.
After going through the PIL and hearing counsels, the DB issued notice to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Advertising Standards Council of India, Central Board of Film Certifications, State of J&K and State Law Ministry.
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