The Supreme Court on Friday said the government’s new rules for OTT platforms have "no teeth, as there is no provision for the prosecution of those who do not abide by these rules", granting interim protection from arrest to Amazon India’s head Aparna Purohit over FIR filed against her by the Uttar Pradesh police for the alleged hurting of religious feelings of Hindus by the web series ‘Tandav’.
The court on Thursday has favoured screening of content released on the over-the-top (OTT) media platforms, adding "uncontrolled and unscreened" viewing of films on OTT platforms is an issue.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said: "These rules are only guidelines... no mechanism to control (the content on OTT platforms). "Without legislation cannot control it,” the court noted.
Justice Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy said that protection from arrest will be subjected to the petitioner’s cooperation with the probe and appearing before the police as and when summoned, according to Live Law.
The top court also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on Purohit’s plea for an anticipatory bail in the case and asked Purohit to co-operate in the ongoing investigation.
The bench observed that the new rule on social media are mere guidelines and have no provision for action against the digital platforms. “Law has to be framed to put in place a mechanism to control OTT platforms instead of mere guidelines. The new guidelines of the government on regulating OTT platforms like Netflix & Amazon Prime Video have ‘no teeth’ as there is no provision of prosecution,” the bench said, stressing that a law should be drafted to put in place a mechanism to curb the content on these online platforms.
The court also asked the Centre to consider bringing in law instead of mere guidelines. The Solicitor General, appearing for the Centre, asked for two weeks in the matter.
Tandav is a 9 episode political thriller that stars Bollywood A-listers Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub came into the controversy over the false depiction of Uttar Pradesh police and insulting Hindu deities.