SC to take up YouTube channel’s plea on May 13

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a plea seeking quashing of an order blocking YouTube channel ‘4PM’ on May 13.

The apex court on May 5 sought responses from the Centre and others on the plea filed by Sanjay Sharma, the editor of digital news platform ‘4PM’, which has a subscriber base of 73 lakh.

The plea claimed that the blocking was effected by the intermediary pursuant to an undisclosed direction, allegedly issued by the Centre, citing “vague” grounds of “national security” and “public order”.

As per the Supreme Court’s cause list for May 13, the plea is slated to come up for hearing before a bench of justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih.

The plea claimed that the blocking was a “chilling assault on journalistic independence” and the right of public to receive information. It further said no blocking order or underlying complaint was furnished to the petitioner, violating both statutory and constitutional safeguards.