The Supreme court dismisses NGO’s plea for directions to Centre on starting 24-hours Sindhi language channel on Doordarshan. A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has rejected the petition filed by NGO Sindhi Sangat.
Senior counsel Indira Jaising, appearing for the NGO, urged that public broadcasting was one of the means to ensure the safeguarding of the language. The NGO filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the order of the high court, which had dismissed the NGO’s plea on the ground that Prasar Bharati’s decision not to start a 24-hour Sindhi language channel was based on an intelligible differentia.
The high court, in its judgment, noted that the NGO could not establish any legal or constitutional right for demanding a 24-hour Sindhi channel on Doordarshan. It held the plea “misplaced.” The court also noted that section 12(2)(d) of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, obligates Prasar Bharati to provide “adequate coverage” to the different cultures and languages of the regions in the country.
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According to the response from Prasar Bharati, a national census has determined that there are about 2.6 million persons speaking Sindhi as their mother tongue, and thus, in its rebuttal, a full-time channel to that community would not be viable.
It has been stated that while performing its functions, Prasar Bharati has already been broadcasting Sindhi language programmes on DD Girnar, DD Rajasthan and DD Sahyadri channels, which cover areas having a sizeable Sindhi speaking population of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. The Court observed that these channels are not only available throughout the country but also available on the DTH platform.
The high court has ruled that the policy of Prasar Bharati to offer Sindhi programmes on the regional channels in question was rational and reasonable and satisfied the “adequate coverage” requirement of the law.
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