SC notices to Centre, Prasar Bharti on sting op

New Delhi, May 28: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre, Prasar Bharati, CNN-IBN, IBN-7, TV 18, Cobra Post and Outlook on a petition seeking directions to the Centre and Prasar Bharati to stop the telecast of programmes shown on the CNN-IBN channel on May 4, 5 and 14 which carried out sting operations against religious pontiffs.

The petitioner, Acharya Pramod alias Pramod Tyagi and others prayed to the court to order the registration of an FIR against the TV channels and magazines for unauthorised recording, extortion and incitement and further the geniuneness of the recording of the CD/programme by examining the same by the forensic labratory.

The petitioner has also urged the apex court to lay down guidelines for the prevention of misuse of sting operations carried out without intimating authorities so that the Right to Privacy of citizens is not encroached. This also includes the demand of appropriate compensation for victims of sting-operations.

Mahamandaleshwar Mahayogi K A Pilot Baba and Mahamandaleshwar Swami Pandit ji Maharaj, also petitioners, today contended before the vacation bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and D K Jain that sting operations have become a source of blackmailing by private TV channels and this is violative of the Fundamental Rights of the petitioners as guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution.

They contended that the Union Government and concerned ministries have till date, failed to enact a law to check and prevent the misuse of sting operations carried out by vested interests to fill up the coffers with either blackmailing, collecting advertisement money or taking benefit of increased TRPs.

The petition also mentions a CNN-IBN live coverage under the heading '' Government turning black money into white'' and an article published in Outlook titled, ''Black money ki babagiri''.

It showed so-called ''Sadhus and Godmen'' who admitted to accepting commission and ran trusts and charitable foundations which were used for ''nefarious and illegal activities''.

According to the petitioner, they became preachers of Hinduism for propagating and spreading the Hindu religion in order to bring corrections in society but the TV channels were neither a priest, tantrik nor baba.

They mentioned an enquiry ordered by the Income Tax Commission, Ghaziabad against the petitioner's trust Sarthak Social Welfare Educational Trust set up on May 19, 1997. The case of Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh who had also filed petitions against illegal phone tapping was also mentioned.

UNI