The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a PIL for direction to mobile and DTH service providers to give free services during the period of lockdown clamped to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
"What kind of petitions are being filed," a bench presided over by Justice N V Ramana said, declining to entertain the plea.
In his petition, advocate Manohar Pratap also asked the court to direct Amazon and Netflix to provide all contents on their video streaming to the viewers, completely free during the period of lockdown as steps to deal with "psychological pressure mounting on individuals due to lockdown or kept in isolation or quarantine".
The petitioner contended lakhs of people who are either stranded at various places with or without families or are in the quarantine facility, do not have any means or resources to get their phone recharged.
"In the present emergent situation, where physical movement of individuals has been restricted for larger good, the only means of communication left is digital means by way of audio/video calling," he pointed out.
The petitioner also said that the free and unlimited access to the channels on satellite TVs (DTH) would give a new means of entertainment to the viewers. It will also help to combat the psychological pressure which is being mounted on the individuals being confined indoors or who are kept in isolation.