NEW DELHI: An episode from the reality show, ‘Emotional Atyachaar", was viewed in the Delhi High court today as the Chief Justice wanted to examine the allegation that the programme is vulgar.

The 30-minute episode about gays and sex change issue was shown in the chamber of the Chief Justice Dipak Misra in the presence of counsel for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, UTV-Bindass TV, and the petitioner Sanjay Tiwari Ujjala.
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The Court directed the Ministry to view another episode and inform the Court by 11 August whether it was within the parameters mentioned in the Self Regulatory mechanism adopted by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and approved by the Government.
 
The petitioner claimed that the reality TV show ‘Emotional Atyachaar‘ is really an ‘emotional atyachaar on the viewers‘ as it is nothing more than infringing the privacy of individuals and spreading vulgarity.

The petitioner through his counsel Rahul Mehra claimed that the TV show had bypassed all norms of decency and was showing indecent scenes where viewers of varied age groups ranging from children to women and senior citizens were exposed to them. He said the show causes deep hurt to the people and is a blot on civilized society.

The Court asked the Ministry whether any pre-censorship mechanism was being observed when allowing the shows to be aired on TV channels. Appearing on behalf of the Ministry, Rohit Agrawal said there are no formal rules or parameters
for TV channels except the self regulatory mechanism adopted by the electronic channels.

Any action against a channel is taken only if there is any complaint for showing vulgar or any other prohibited material, he added.

Ujjala represents an NGO Indraprastha People which is seeking a ban on the reality show as it is allegedly spreading vulgarity and demoting social and moral values. He alleged that by airing this programme, the channel has violated the norms and morality guidelines laid down by the government.

The Court - which took cognisance of the petition in February - had on 14 July decided to see two recent episodes of the reality show and said that a division bench of Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna would also examine whether set guidelines have been followed while allowing its telecast.

NEW DELHI: Tripurari Sharan, a senior Indian Administrative Officer who is presently serving in his home state Bihar, is to be the new Director General of Doordarshan.

Sharan is being posted on deputation in Doordarshan for five years. Informed sources expressed surprise since the normal tenure is three years.

Sharan, presently Principal Secretary for the Food Department in Bihar, is an IAS officer of the 1985 batch.
He has earlier served as Director of the Film and Television Institute of India, during which time he had directed a feature film ‘Woh subah kidhar nikal gayi‘ produced under the auspices of the Institute.

After interviews held on 15 March, the Prasar Bharati Board had prepared a shortlist of three persons for Doordarshan and two persons for All India Radio for the post of Director-General.

According to the procedure, this list was sent to the Ministry which was expected to forward it to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for selecting the Directors-General of the public service broadcasters. 

The names suggested after extensive interviews by the Board on 15 March - in that order - were L D Mandloi, Tripurari Sharan (1985, IAS, Bihar), and Ramsubhag Singh (1987, IAS, Himachal Pradesh) for the post of DG Doordarshan, while G Jayalal and L D Mandloi were shortlisted for the post of DG AIR.

The meeting had been presided over by Prasar Bharati Chairperson Mrinal Pandey and attended by eight other members including Rajiv Takru, Additional Secretary of the Ministry and nominated member in the Board who is currently holding charge as CEO.

While Sharan‘s name was third on the list for DD, it has been alleged by the Doordarshan Empanelled Producers Association that this order was changed following oral communication from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and all Board members were asked to sign afresh on the new order of preference.

A majority of the members agreed with the new list but reduced the number of persons to just two. While five of the nine members including the Chairperson and Takru approved this new order of preference, three members removed the name of Ram Subhag Singh in the DD list. The ninth member insisted on sticking to the original order of preference, though he also removed the name of Singh.

In the case of All India Radio, the appointment of DG has been held up as at least one of the persons shortlisted - Jiyalal - has gone to the Central Administrative Tribunal, which has since reserved its orders after hearing both sides.

It may be recalled that the Delhi High Court had in 2008 said Mandloi - who has been asked to hold additional charge more that three times as DG - was qualified to be Director General of Doordarshan.

It is interesting that this comes close on the heels of two other IAS officers, BS Lalli and Aruna Sharma, having been indicted - the former in many cases, and the latter in the matter of the Commonwealth Games.