The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the Centre’s telecast ban on Malayalam news channel MediaOne and pulled up the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for raising national security claims in “thin air” without facts. Observing that the State can’t impose unreasonable restrictions on press as it would have a chilling effect on press freedom, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud set aside the Kerala High Court order that had upheld the Centre’s decision to ban the channel’s telecast on security grounds.

The bench, also comprising Justice Hima Kohli, said the alleged link of the channel’s shareholders to Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is not a legitimate ground to restrict the rights of the channel. “Some of the reports cited by IB are that minorities favoring reports were telecast, there was critique of UAPA, NRC, CAA and criticism of judiciary and executive... such reports are just inference of what is available in the public domain. There was nothing to show terrorist links,” Bar and Bench quoted the SC as saying.