SC to hear plea seeking 24-hour Sindhi language channel on Doordarshan

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea by an NGO seeking directions to the Centre to start a 24-hour Sindhi language channel on Doordarshan.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is likely to hear the petition filed by NGO Sindhi Sangat challenging an order of the Delhi High Court which dismissed the plea.

The NGO has moved the top court against the May 27 order of the high court which dismissed the plea, saying the decision of Prasar Bharti not to start a 24-hour Sindhi language channel is based on an intelligible differentia.

The high court, in its order, said the NGO has been unable to persuade it concerning the legal right/constitutional right to seek directions for allocating a 24-hour Sindhi channel on Doordarshan and its plea was "misplaced".

It had said that section 12(2)(d) of the Prasar Bharti (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, places an obligation on Prasar Bharti to provide "adequate coverage" to the diverse cultures and languages of the various regions.

Prasar Bharti, in its reply, said according to the then census, the population of Sindhi-speaking people in the country was approximately 26 lakh and a full-time channel was not sustainable.

"It is stated that, however, in the discharge of its duty, Respondent No. 2 (Prasar Bharti) has been duly telecasting programmes in Sindhi language on its DD Girnar, DD Rajasthan and DD Sahyadri channels which covers areas where the Sindhi population is mainly concentrated i.e., Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra."

"It is stated that these channels are available throughout the country and are also carried on the DTH1 platform," the high court noted.

"The decision of Respondent No. 2 to include programmes in Sindhi language on its DD Girnar, DD Rajasthan and DD Sahyadri channels, which cover states which as per Respondent No. 2 have main concentration of the Sindhi population appears rational and reasonable to this court and it makes the tests of 'adequate coverage' contemplated in the provision," it added.