NEW DELHI: Supreme Court (SC) has issued notice to news channels Times Now and Jaya TV asking them to produce the tapes and microchips containing the alleged contemptuous remarks made by Union Transport Minister T R Baalu on the controversial Sethu Samudharam project issue.
The division bench comprising justices B N Agarwal and G S Singhvi also issued notices to the reporters and photographers of the two news channel who had covered the incident that had taken place on 1 October last year in Chennai.
The SC has issued notice on the basis of an application filed by the AIADMK seeking action against Baalu for making the contemptuous remarks after the apex court had stayed the state-sponsored bandh on the Sethu Samudharam project issue.
The court is already hearing the contempt of court petition filed by AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa against Tamil Nadu chief Minister M Karunanidhi and others for enforcing Tamil Nadu bandh in support of the Sethusamundram Shipping Canal Project on 1 October, 2007 in defiance of the apex court order.
Baalu had made some offending remarks against Justice Agrawal for restraining his party from sponsoring the Tamil Nadu bandh on 1 October. The apex court had issued notices to the alleged contemners who had failed to taken action against those who forced the bandh and paralysed normal life in the state.
Another bench of the SC headed by chief justice K G Balakrishnan has already reserved its verdict on petitions seeking declaration that 35-km long Ram Setu is a monument of national heritage and it should not be destroyed for completing 95-km long Setusamundram canal.
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