Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, June 21:

Challenging the constitutionality of a provision of the National Broadcasting Act 1992, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed at the Supreme Court today seeking its order to the government to annul the provision of the concerned Act. Advocate Narayan Dutta Kandel filed the petition claiming that as Clause 8 (1) of the 1992 Act is contradictory to the Constitution,

it should be declared null and void. He claimed that it is unconstitutional to promulgate any provision which allows the government to cancel the licence of any FM radio station on charge of violating the 1992 Act. He claimed that the provision is contradictory to the Constitution because the Constitution completely guarantees the press and publication rights and does not allow the cancellation of licence merely on the ground of publishing news, views and articles. The petitioner filed the PIL against the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and the Parliamentary Secretariat accusing them of promulgating the Act unconstitutionally. “The Article 13 of the Constitution guarantees press and publication rights, saying that the licence of any newspaper or publication house cannot be cancelled on grounds of printing and publishing articles.