The Supreme Court has rejected a PIL seeking the creation of a regulatory board to oversee over-the-top (OTT) and streaming platforms in India.
The petition argued that unlike traditional media such as films and television, these platforms operate without being subject to equivalent checks and balances, as per reports.
The PIL, filed in September this year, cited the Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack to emphasise the need for a regulatory mechanism, noting that the OTT platform claimed the series was based on real-life events.
As per reports, the plea filed by lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha and Apurva Arhatia stated, “However, (what) the series have shown is a vile attempt to rewrite history, downplay the terror inflicted by the actual hijackers, and subtly glorify their actions…by reducing the tragedy of IC 814 to a farcical narrative, the series tried to promote the insidious agenda that seeks to whitewash the brutality of terrorism and vilify the Hindu community.”
The petitioners requested the Supreme Court to instruct the central government to establish an independent body, titled the “Central Board for Regulation and Monitoring of Online Video Contents,” tasked with overseeing, filtering, and regulating video content across various platforms for viewers in India.
Jha and Arhatia also included the ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, Defence, along with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, as parties to the PIL.
The petitioners further emphasised that, if such a board were to be formed, it should be chaired by a secretary-level IAS officer and comprise members from various sectors, including the film industry, cinematography, media, defence forces, the legal profession, and academia.
