SC stays all pleas for regulation of content on OTTs pending before HCs; will hear matter

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, March 23, stayed all proceedings that are pending before various High Courts across India regarding their pleas to regulate the content of shows and movies on OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar etc. The top court had earlier issued a notice on a transfer petition filed by the Centre seeking to club all petitions filed in the High Courts on the issue of regulating OTT content.

SC stays all proceedings of OTT platforms pending in HCs

A bench led by Justice D Y Chandrachud took the decision of staying the further proceedings of the pending pleas at the High Courts across India and said that the top court will hear the proceedings regarding a similar issue that is pending before it in the second week of April. Justice MR Shah was also a part of the bench that stayed the proceedings and observed that there are multiple high courts in which the proceedings are to be stayed.

Public Interest Litigation filed for regulating OTT content

Along with the Centre's plea, a batch of PILs was also filed by advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha for NGO 'Justice for Rights Foundation' for regulating the OTT platforms by an autonomous body. The court was hearing the said batch of PILs with a proper board and institution sought to monitor and manage the content on different OTT and digital media platforms.

About Central Government's transfer plea

The Central Government of India had filed a transfer petition that seeks the transfer of cases pending in different high courts for the regulation of various OTT platforms. The Bench had earlier tagged the Centre's plea with the other petitions and had issued a notice on it on October 15, 2020. 

The notice sought the Centre's response on a plea to set up an autonomous board to monitor the content that is showcased on the OTT platforms and to filter any inappropriate or obscene content and regulate it for the viewers watching the content on various digital media platforms. There has been a recent development regarding this and a new Information Technology (Guidelines For Intermediaries And Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 has been notified to address the issue after an affidavit that was filed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

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