Page 19 - Banking Finance April 2021

LEGAL UPDATE

Legal

Cases

Rules for online media rules are more and more in the form trial courts to deal with over 35 lakh
of guidelines and have no effective pending cheque bouncing cases would
lacks teeth, don't have mechanism for either screening or not serve the purpose as most of the

provisions for action: SC taking appropriate action for those cases are stuck because of non-
The Supreme Court has recently stated who violate the guidelines. appearance of accused persons.
that the Centre's guidelines on Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, The Department of Financial Services
regulating social media lacks teeth and appearing for Centre, told the bench (DFS), under the Finance Ministry,
do not have any provision for taking that the Government shall consider through additional solicitor general
appropriate action for prosecution or and take appropriate steps for Vikramjit Banerjee told a bench of
punishment against digital platforms regulation or legislation as may be Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, and Justices
which show inappropriate content or found fit and it shall be placed before L.N. Rao and S.R. Bhat, "one of the
major factors for the high pendency is
violate the norms. the court.
the delay in ensuring the presence of
The SC also granted interim protection Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, the accused before the court for trial.
appearing for Purohit said that the
from arrest to Amazon Prime Video's It is understood that most cases are
India head Aparna Purohit in FIRs lodged government has notified the rules on pending due to absence of the
February 25. These rules lack teeth,
over web series 'Tandav'. It asked her accused. Under such circumstances, it
these are mere guidelines. They don't
to co-operate with the investigation is not clear how additional specific
have any provision for prosecution or
and appear before the Investigating courts would provide a solution to the
punishment. It is mostly a guideline
Officer as and when required. A bench problem of the large number of
thing, the bench told Mehta. The
comprising justices Ashok Bhushan and pending cases."
Solicitor General then urged the court
R S Reddy also issued notice to the Amicus curiae Sidharth Luthra flagged
to give some time and the government
Uttar Pradesh government on Purohit's will come up with some draft the DFS view to the bench, which read
plea for anticipatory bail in FIRs on regulation and legislation and place it out the text of Article 247 of the
'Tandav' webseries. before the court. Constitution, which allowed
establishment of additional courts for
The SC remarked that there is nothing
More courts won't reduce better administration of laws. "At the
in the rules to control the hearing of this matter, we have
inappropriate content on these cheque bounce cases: suggested that the Union of India may
platforms and without legislation it Supreme Court provide for establishment of additional
may not be possible to control it. The courts for the better administration of
The Supreme Court has recently
bench, in its order, stated that a disagreed with the view of Finance laws i.e. the Negotiable Instruments
perusal of the rules indicate that the Ministry that creation of additional Act, under Article 247," it read.

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