Thiruvananthapuram, April 16: A Congress-promoted Malayalam channel went off the air for 24 hours today after the information and broadcasting ministry "prohibited" transmission for a day as penalty for telecasting an adults-only movie in violation of rules.
Jai Hind TV, a news channel launched by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi nearly eight years ago, had admitted to "mistakenly" telecasting the "A"-certified film Hai Harithe in August 2012 and apologised.
The one-day ban came in an order issued by the director, I&B ministry, Neeti Sarkar that it had come to the ministry's notice that the channel had telecast the film on August 27, 2012, which was a "gross violation" of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
The April 7 order "prohibited transmission or re-transmission" of the channel "on any platform throughout India with effect from 00:01 hrs on April 16, 2015 till 00:01 hrs on April 17, 2015".
The director also asked for a "compliance report immediately after the commencement of the above period followed by a final report on (the) expiry of the... prohibition period".
The ministry had earlier issued a notice to the channel in May 2013. In its reply, on June 19, 2013, the channel had said it had arranged for a Malayalam movie to be telecast but unfortunately, at the last moment, the print got damaged and became unfit for immediate uplink.
In order to avoid a delay, the channel said it telecast Hai Harithe "mistakenly due to lack of proper care of the technical staff". It said an enquiry revealed that the tape of Hai Harithe was "mistakenly cased in another case with another title".
The channel said such mistakes would not be repeated, apologised for the lapse and requested the ministry to accept its "explanation and close the proceedings".
Subsequently, the channel was given an opportunity to present its case before an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) meeting held on August 5, 2013.
The order said the IMC "opined that the channel should have observed caution and set up such systems at their end so that no 'A' certified film is telecast on their channel even by mistake.
"The IMC observed that telecast of (an) 'A'-certified film is itself a gross violation. After deliberations on the matter the IMC reiterated its earlier recommendation (in its meeting held on August 5, 2013) of (a) one-day off-the-air penalty to Jai Hind TV," the order added.
V.M. Sudheeran, who heads the Congress's Kerala unit, is the chairman of the channel, which Sonia launched in August 2007. Party spokesperson M.M. Hassan is its managing director.
Reached for comments, an embarrassed Hassan explained that "only a song sequence was telecast without knowledge that it was from an A-certified movie".
"We thought the ministry had accepted our explanation but after the NDA came to power, the file seems to have been brought up again. We could have got a stay from the court if we wanted, but that would have only led to a confrontation with the ministry and we don't want that," Hassan said.
