Bombay High Court reprieve for India Today in BARC fine case

The Bombay High Court in its order has set aside an order passed by the BARC disciplinary council against India Today Group for ‘viewership malpractice’.

As per news reports, earlier in the year, the BARC council had passed an order imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh on India Today Group for not being able to satisfactorily explain the “abnormal” and “inexplicable” increase in the TRPs of India Today TV. Following this, India Today Group had approached the Bombay High Court seeking directions to quash BARC’s order. The Bombay High Court directed India Today Group to deposit Rs 5 with the Court and directed that no coercive action be taken against the network subject to the deposit of the fine.

In the latest development, The High Court has asked for the Rs 5 lakh deposited with the court registrar to be returned to the India Today Group in full.

In a statement issued, India Today Group said, “Over 45 years, we have painstakingly built on the principle of credible journalism. Story by story. Edition by edition. Platform by platform. We have created a deep legacy of credibility, excellence, trust, and bipartisanship. We are widely recognised as the Gold Standard of journalism in the country. In a landscape marked by shrill polarities, we have only one political alignment: the Indian Constitution. And we follow it without fear or favour.”

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment