Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India (PCI) witnessed high drama last week over the delay in appointment of a new chairman, with its members requisitioning a meeting to discuss the issue, and government-appointed secretary withdrawing permission for the meeting at the eleventh hour.
The PCI has been headless since Justice (retired) C K Prasad demitted office on November 29 last year. Though the date of expiry of his term was known well in advance, no steps were initiated to appoint a new chairman.
The PCI chairman is appointed by a three-member selection committee comprising the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and a member of the PCI chosen for the purpose by its members. The PCI members chose Prakash Dubey as their representative in the selection committee on October 26, while Justice Prasad was still in office.
Since then, Dubey and other members of PCI had tried to schedule a meeting of the selection committee with the Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman. But the committee has not been able to meet in spite of several reminders by the PCI representative.
Press Council is a statutory authority created by an Act of Parliament and entrusted with quasi-judicial functions of maintaining freedom of Press and also adjudicating on disputes where Press coverage crosses the line. Its Chairman is not only the first among equals of the 26-member PCI, but is also its administrative head who sanctions financial transactions. In the absence of a Chairman, work at the PCI has come to a standstill.
Decrying the unprecedented situation where new members have been notified for PCI’s 14th term but Chairman is not appointed, agitated members decided to requisition an extraordinary meeting to discuss the situation where for the first time since its inception, the unbroken tradition of appointing a retired Supreme Court judge as chairman was not observed.
The extraordinary meeting was called on March 8 to discuss the agenda “…non-appointment of the Chairman of the Press Council of India.”
The time and agenda for the said meeting was intimated to the members by the PCI secretary. However, on the night of March 7, the secretary circulated a note among members saying “the notice for holding extra-ordinary meeting on 08.03.2022 at 11 AM at the council office, stands withdrawn.”
Attempts by members to find out the reasons for cancellation did not succeed as they could not contact the secretary.
The members, therefore, went ahead and held the meeting as scheduled. G Sudhakar Nair, a member, was elected to chair the meeting.
As per rules, 11 members are required to requisition a meeting.
It was requisitioned and attended by 14 members and a resolution was passed and sent to the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, the I&B secretary, the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Rajya Sabha Chairman and PCI secretary Anupama Bhatnagar.
The resolution said that the government had put the PCI in “deep freeze” and the work at PCI had come to a standstill with 297 fresh cases/disputes pending and 47 part heard/adjourned cases awaiting final decision.
The resolution said that the government had put the PCI in “deep freeze” and the work at PCI had come to a standstill with 297 fresh cases/disputes pending and 47 part heard/adjourned cases awaiting final decision
