MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) recently cancelled the licences of STV Enterprises’ four channels Punjab Today, STV Haryana News, STV Jammu-Kashmir News and STV UP News (STV-Rajasthan) that were mentioned under the news category.

A while ago, it had also cancelled the licence of V6 ENT channel from VIL Media that was earlier called Nikit Investment Pvt Ltd and was mentioned under the news category.  

During the month of January 2019, cancellation of licences to two MSOs Digi Cable Network and SCOD 18 Networking was upheld by the Supreme Court on security grounds. Before moving the apex court, the petitioners had approached the Bombay High Court where their pleas challenging the cancellation order by the MIB were dismissed.

Earlier, the licences issued to these cable TV service providers were cancelled by the MIB on the ground that the Ministry of Home Affairs denied issuance of "security clearance" to them.  The apex court bench comprising Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre and Justice Indu Malhotra security agreed that security clearance is a mandatory requirement as per Cable Television Network (Amendment) Rules.

Up until August 2018, MIB was strict in giving channel licences, even cancelling some. 14 channels, whose licences were cancelled by the MIB due to security denial by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), challenged the decision and had got a stay order from the High Court.

Out of these fourteen channels, twelve channels were news channels and two were non-news channels. Mahua Media Private Ltd, Mavis Satcom Ltd, STV Enterprises Ltd and Alliance Broadcasting Private Ltd were the concerned parties.