Supreme Court declines to consider plea to set up regulatory body for OTT

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea for a direction to the Centre to set up a regulatory board to monitor and manage OTT and streaming platforms in India. 

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said such an issue fell under the policy-making domain of the executive and required wide consultations with various stakeholders.

"This is the problem of PILs. They are all on policy matters, with these kinds of PILs, we miss out genuine PILs," the bench said.

The petitioner sought to withdraw the plea to make a representation with the government but it was declined by the court.

The petition filed by advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha and Apurva Arhatia contended that the OTT platforms operated without the checks and balances that traditional media—like films and TV—are subjected to. 

"Unlike films shown in theatres, OTT content doesn't go through a certification process before release, which has led to a rise in explicit scenes, violence, substance abuse, and other harmful content, often without proper warnings," it said.

Though the government introduced the IT Rules 2021 to address the issue, but they’ve proven ineffective. These platforms continue to exploit loopholes, putting out controversial content unchecked, which has national security implications and promotes things like gambling and drugs, it stated.

The petitioner said their is about preventing harm before it happens, not after, by ensuring there is a body headed by an IAS officer and comprising experts from diverse fields, including from movie, media, defence, law, education, to regulate this content before it reaches the public, just like it is available for movies and TV. 

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 laid down a regimen to be followed by every intermediary. Social Media Intermediary has also been covered under it. Section 9 of the Ethics Code directs publishers of news and current affairs content and publishers of online curated content or of publishers of OTT platforms to observe and adhere to the Code.

The Supreme Court by its judgement of April 16, 2021 in case of 'John Paily v. The State of Kerala' has held that courts do not possess the power to set up an adjudicatory committee or a tribunal by way of issuing a writ of mandamus. 

"The role of judiciary is primarily only to test the legality of a statute and not to amend/modify a statute. Setting up of tribunals, authorities, regulators come purely within the domain of legislature and not in the domain of Courts," the Delhi High Court had said last year to a plea on absence of censor board to review the non-film songs.