BANGALORE: A division bench of the Karnataka High Court comprising justices AM Farooq and AB Hinchgeri passed an interim order on a petition by AV Amarnathan, a lawyer.
The HC directed Udaya TV and ETV not to air programmes that were being investigated by the police or matters pending before the criminal court. Since the matter required detailed hearing the case was posted to June 15.
As reported by indiantelevision.com over the past few months, the Karnataka HC had permitted the advocate general to file contempt proceedings against two Kannada crime serials following government counsel contending that the opinions expressed in the serials about the innocence or guilt of the accused in any manner were pre-judicial to the interest of the justice delivery system.
The petition had argued that such serials amounted to holding a parallel trial by the media. Continued telecast of the serials could constitute contempt of court.
Based on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Amarnathan, the government had also sought a blanket direction to the media not to carry stories in violation of the criminal justice system.
On 12 January, bailable warrants were issued against Udaya TV and its programme Crime Story producer-director Balakrishna Kakatkar, and also against ETV and its programme Crime Diary, which was produced and directed by Ravi Belegere.
As reported by Indiantelevision.com earlier, the State Government had sought direction from the HC on banning of two serials since they were effecting fair trials of criminal cases, infringing the rights of citizens and adversely effecting public interest.

