Supreme Court seeks Centre's response on plea challenging blocking of 4PM News YouTube channel
Appearing for Sharma, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said he was not issued any notice before the blocking, and he came to know about it from an intermediary. Sibal said the action is 'ex facie unconstitutional'. 'I want the blocking order to be removed. The whole channel is blocked, and for no reason,' he said.
Though the court initially indicated that it may tag it with another plea challenging the blocking rules, Sibal urged that an interim order would be necessary. 'I don't even have the blocking order. I don't know what is against me,' he said.
Justice Gavai, however, said, 'We will have to hear the other side.'
The plea contended that 'no blocking order or underlying complaint has been furnished to the petitioner, violating both statutory and constitutional safeguards', and urged the court to direct the government to produce the blocking order with reasons and records.
Sharma argued that freedom of speech and expression guaranteed to each citizen under Article 19(1)(a) embraces within its scope the freedom to disseminate information and the exchange of ideas. He added that the reason of national security given to block the channel cannot be used as a blanket excuse to shut out independent journalistic voices and that the restrictions must be justified and proportionate.
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