Contemplating action on regulating OTT platforms, Centre tells SC

The Centre today told the Supreme Court that it is contemplating some action on OTT regulation. I&B minister Prakash Javadekar had recently told the parliament that OTT guidelines have been almost finalised and will be issued soon.

The Bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian asked the Centre to file its response within six weeks to the PIL seeking OTT regulation by an autonomous body. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain told the Supreme Court that the Centre was contemplating some action on the issue of regulating the OTT platforms.

The CJI shot back saying that “mere contemplation” is not acceptable and sought to know about action being taken by the government. While asking the Centre to file a response in six weeks, the apex court tagged the matter with a pending petition.

The Supreme Court had on 15th October 2020 issued notices to the central government, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on a plea filed by advocates Shashank Shekhar Jha and Apurva Arhatia. The petitioners had sought a proper board/institution /association for the monitoring and management of content on different OTT/streaming and digital media platforms.

In a separate case, the ministry had earlier told the top court that there is a need to regulate digital media and that the court may first appoint a committee of persons as amicus before laying down guidelines with respect to the regulation of hate speech in the media.

The ministry had also said that the digital media too is impactful and has the potential to go viral just like the electronic media. “Digital media has faster reach, potential to become viral due to apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook… Digital media has serious impact and because of its potential, the court must first take up digital media," the ministry had said in its affidavit.