I&B Ministry
Arun Jaitley to meet PM to discuss Sun TV issues
MUMBAI: India’s Finance and Information & Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2 July, 2015 to discuss the security clearance issue for Kalanithi Maran owned Sun TV’s 33 television channels and FM radio stations.
The issue has assumed urgency given that the entire auction process of FM phase III has been held up with the I&B Ministry not convening a meeting of the application review committee. All the other 28 companies, barring those affiliated to Maran’s Sun TV Network, that had applied for the auction and migration from phase II to phase III, have been granted security clearance.
According to an Indian Express report, what has also stumped the I&B Ministry is the Union Home Ministry’s stance with respect to the print publications of the Sun TV Group.
In response to the I&B Ministry’s query regarding the fate of the newspapers and magazines from the Sun stable such as Dinakaran, Kumudham and Murasoli, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said print publications “do not fall under the ambit of national security clearance.”
At a recent meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Law Secretary is said to have pointed out that such a move would go against the spirit of Article 19 (1) of the Constitution on freedom of speech. This was subsequently reiterated in an opinion obtained from the Attorney General’s office. But the PMO had opined in the meeting then that once security clearance has been denied, there was no need perhaps to seek even the AG’s opinion.
In his letter to Singh dated 1 April following the denial of security clearance on 30 March to Sun TV’s FM radio channels, Jaitley had said this was likely to be challenged in the court. “Such a situation will result in unnecessary embarrassment besides eliminating a large group from the FM channels. In view of the above mentioned position, it is felt necessary to request your indulgence for reconsidering the decision,” the letter stated.
I&B Ministry
India turns up the heat on piracy, orders Telegram to axe 3,142 channels and blocks 800 websites
New legal teeth, nodal officers and notices to intermediaries signal that the government is done playing nice with copyright thieves
NEW DELHI: India’s war on film piracy just got significantly more aggressive. The government has ordered Telegram to remove 3,142 channels distributing pirated content, blocked access to around 800 websites through internet service providers, and put the full weight of freshly sharpened legislation behind the crackdown. The message from New Delhi is unambiguous: the free ride for copyright thieves is over.
Minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan spelled out the legal architecture to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023, he said, now contains specific provisions designed to make piracy a genuinely painful proposition. Sections 6AA and 6AB prohibit unauthorised recording and transmission of films, with violations attracting a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. At the upper end, offenders face three years behind bars and fines of up to 5 per cent of a film’s audited gross production cost — a figure that, for a big-budget production, could run into crores.
The legislation also gives the government powers to act against intermediaries hosting infringing content, by notifying them under Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and compelling takedowns and blocking actions. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries are legally required to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receiving government notice or court orders. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, add a further layer of obligation, requiring platforms to ensure their services are not used to host or distribute content that violates copyright or proprietary rights.
To put enforcement into practice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established a dedicated institutional mechanism, complete with nodal officers to receive complaints. Copyright holders, authorised representatives or individuals can report piracy through a prescribed format, after which the government issues notices to intermediaries to disable access to infringing links.
The most headline-grabbing action came on 11 March 2026, when Telegram was formally notified under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and directed to remove and disable 3,142 channels found to be distributing unauthorised content belonging to OTT platforms, content owners and producers. The complaints that triggered the action came from OTT platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video, which alleged that copyrighted films, web series and other material were being shared on the platform on a massive scale. Telegram’s architecture, with its large file-sharing limits and capacity for user anonymity, has made it a favoured vehicle for exactly this kind of large-scale piracy.
The Telegram action sits within a broader pattern of escalating enforcement. Just days before the Lok Sabha statement, the ministry banned five OTT platforms for streaming obscene content: MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu. In July 2025, the Centre ordered the blocking of 25 OTT platforms accused of streaming obscene, vulgar or pornographic material, a list that included ALTT, ULLU, Big Shots App, Desiflix, Boomex, Navarasa Lite, Gulab App, Kangan App, Bull App, Jalva App, ShowHit, Wow Entertainment, Look Entertainment, Hitprime, Feneo, ShowX, Sol Talkies, Adda TV, HotX VIP, Hulchul App, MoodX, NeonX VIP, Fugi, Mojflix and Triflicks.
Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provides the regulatory hook for those actions, prohibiting platforms from hosting content that is obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, gender-harassing, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that promotes hatred and violence.
For an industry that loses billions of rupees annually to piracy, the direction of travel is welcome. The question, as always, is not whether the laws exist, but whether the enforcement machinery can keep pace with the ingenuity of those determined to circumvent it. Three thousand channels down, and the pirates are already busy opening three thousand more.
