HC to Kerala govt: Form panel to assess content of PFI’s newspaper

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The court, in its order on June 23, said the right of the petitioner to have advertisements in Thejas would depend on the scrutiny of the committee constituted by the government within three months. The committee has to take a decision in another three months. The details of the June 23 order were made available only now.

The government argued that the daily was acting as a catalyst for polarisation and communal division in the society. Its directors, except one, are former activists of the banned outfit SIMI and are also the main leaders of PFI, which uses the newspaper to propagate its extremist ideology.

The government said the PFI has a clandestine agenda of “Islamisation of society by promoting conversion, communalisation of issues with a view to the benefit of Islam, recruitment, and maintenance of a branded committed indoctrinated Muslim youth for undertaking actions including selective elimination of persons, who in their perception are enemies of Islam.’’

The court said it is not commenting on the merit of the materials relied on by the government in the counter affidavit. “It is for the committee to have a scrutiny of the materials relied on to deny the advertisement or to take an action against the petitioner,’’ the court said. The government had denied advertisement to the newspaper since May 2010 without assigning any reason. It was resumed for a while, but was stopped since March 2013.

The judge said that in the absence of constitution of any mechanism to assess and evaluate the information and ideas provided in the newspaper, the decision taken to deny advertisements is unjustifiable.

“The Government of India has a definite policy to deal with similar issues. However, nothing is seen from the records as to whether the state has adopted any such policy applicable to all newspapers. Even in the absence of such a policy, the government is entitled to evolve such norms, which should be applied in an objective manner. It is a requirement to weed out arbitrariness to formulate a definite procedure … to have a substantive scrutiny of the information provided in the newspaper to deny the advertisement,’’ the court said. While going into the issue of the freedom of press, the judge has gone to several apex court orders.

The court observed that the freedom of the press must be stopped when it indulges in polarisation of freedom of thought of citizens on religious or communal lines which is anti-thesis to social or political ethos of the society intended to be created under the Constitution. Any attempt by the press to divide the people and country on the line of religious or communal hostility will have to be curbed by any responsible government.

At the same time, the court said any attempt of the press portraying the voice of the people for their emancipation cannot be decried as foul against the state to deny the constitutional protection of free speech and expression. The court said the Press Council of India has no teeth to tackle issues affecting security, unity or integrity of the state.