Supreme Court stays all pending petitions in High Courts

The Supreme Court stayed on Tuesday all pending petitions filed in different high courts seeking to regulate content on online platforms such as Amazon Prime, Hotstar and Netflix. At least 15 such petitions are pending in high courts. The central government wants the top court to transfer all these pleas to it and decide on the issue. The government has also told the court that it has recently introduced steps to monitor such content and address grievances.

The SC had sent notices in all these cases, but no progress has been made as the notices are yet to be served in some cases.

The court will decide on whether to transfer the case to itself after the notices are served so that affected parties can place their legal submissions before it.


NGO Justice for Rights Foundation, which has petitioned the apex court, sought regulation of content by a censor-board like statutory body in the interest of morality and decency.

In another petition before the SC, filed by advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha seeking similar relief, the government has submitted through the I&B ministry that it had begun keeping an eye on such platforms under its new regulations.