Uttar Pradesh Assembly asks SC to vacate stay in tv Today case

Lucknow: In a significant development in fake sting case, Uttar Pradesh Assembly today passed a resolution to formally ask the Supreme Court to vacate its stay order on personal appearance of the staff of 'tv Today'.

The resolution, which was passed with voice vote, said the House respected the Apex Court but in this case they begged to differ with March four stay order in case no. 138 Supriya Prasad Vs State Government . It further said that the respective roles and powers of the legislature and judiciary were well defined in the Constitution and they did not infringe into each other's.

The resolution requested the Supreme Court to reconsider its stay order and vacate it to enable UP Assembly to decide the matter. The journalists of TV Today group were summoned in the House on February 26 and later on March 4 after they had sought some time. On March 4, the SC had stayed their appearance in the Assembly.

Who were summoned?

• tv Today managing editor Supriya Prasad
• Output head Manish Kumar
• SIT head Deepak Sharma
• Managing Editor of Headlines Today, Rahul Kanwar
• Editor and Anchor Punya Prasoon Bajpayi
• Anchor Gaurav Sawant and Padamba Joshi
• Reporter Harish Sharma

The case:

• The UP government had formed a committee to probe a sting operation done by Headlines Today and Aaj Tak.
• The seven-member committee had found Aaj Tak, a national Hindi news channel, guilty of disturbing communal harmony and carrying out a fake sting operation against Cabinet Minister Mohammad Azam Khan in connection with the Muzaffarnagar riots.
• Media now runs after TRP and business instead of working ethically, said Chairman of the seven member committee Satish Nigam.
• They do not realize how it will affect the audience, he said.
• In its report the committee said that the channel did not provide the tapes of sting operation on repeated demands.
• The panel has charged the channel with contempt of the House.