The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it has prima facie found violation of the programme code by Sudarshan TV’s Bindas Bol show and has issued a notice to the channel.

The SC said the steps taken by the Government in pursuance to the show cause notice against the channel will be subject to the orders of the court. Since the notice  has been issued on Wednesday, the hearing is deferred to October 5, the court said.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and KM Joseph was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that Sudarshan TV has to give reply to the show cause notice by September 28, failing which an ex parte decision will be taken.

“During the course of the hearing today, Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India stated that the Central Government has, in exercise of the power conferred upon it by sub-section (3) of Section 20 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995, issued a notice to show cause dated September 23, to ‘Sudarshan News’,” the bench said in its order.

It said that since the notice is stated to be ‘returnable’ on September 28, Mehta has requested the Court to defer the hearing in the present case so as to enable the central government to take a considered view of the matter.

It added: “The notice shall be dealt with in accordance with law and the Central Government shall submit a report to this Court indicating the outcome of the notice.

“Since the notice has been issued during the pendency of these proceedings, further steps in pursuance of the notice to show cause shall be subject to the result of the present proceedings and to such orders as may be passed by this Court.”

The top court also said that its interim order of September 15, 2020 (injuncting the telecast of remaining episodes of the programme) shall continue to remain in operation pending further orders.