New media policy violative of Fundamental Rights: Bhim Singh

Chief patron, J&K National Panthers Party Prof Bhim Singh on Wednesday said the “New Media Policy” was in total violation of Fundamental Rights including freedom of press.

In a statement, Singh said there were sufficient provisions in the Constitution to “provide reasonable restrictions on the freedom of press.”

   

“The advertisement policy or the publication of any newspaper in any part of the country is controlled under Fundamental Rights applicable to entire India including all Union Territories…this (policy) is in total violation of Fundamental Rights including freedom of press and no single state or Union territory shall claim any exclusive authority to damn any portion of Fundamental Rights,” he said.

He said there were sufficient laws to “control” the media within the Constitution and Penal Code.

“There can’t be separate media laws for a Union territory and rest of the country. Such drastic press control laws were not used during emergency in 1975. Supreme Court in its judgment has strictly maintained that freedom of press cannot be controlled by draconian laws,” Singh said.

He urged the President to use his executive and legislative authority to direct the Lt Governor of J&K to withdraw “this kind of drastic law which cannot be applied in a Union territory like Jammu & Kashmir to curb the freedom of press and Fundamental Rights.”

He said this Policy was “totally illegal, improper, unconstitutional and violative” of the Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

17 − fifteen =