Zee News Anchor Gets Interim Protection Against Arrest; SC Issues Notice To Centre

New Delhi: Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan on Friday received interim protection from Supreme Court on multiple cases filed against him for allegedly telecasting a misleading post on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in the show DNA on July 1.

A bench comprising Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice JK Maheshwari has issued a notice to the Centre through Attorney General’s office, and restrained authorities from taking coercive steps against Ranjan, including arrest

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for the news anchor, submitted an error was made in the programme and that the journalist has already apologized for it. Also, the concerned persons accepted their fault and resigned.

Ranjan, who is the Executive Assistant Producer of Zee News, stated in his petition he hosted a programme which wrongly attributed certain quotes inadvertently and that the error was soon rectified.

He and the channel also tendered unconditional apology, while the news show was withdrawn even before a complaint was filed.

It was pointed out that multiple FIRs have been filed against Ranjan for the same incident, even though the error was unintentional and set right almost immediately.

Ranjan contended the error that occurred was unintentional and the issue is covered by Section 16 and 17 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and Programming Rules against the broadcaster. Hence invoking the criminal statute or registration of FIR doesn’t arise.