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5. This petition was listed before this Hon'ble Court on 15th February, 2021. After hearing the submissions made by the parties, considering the video advertisement footage, as also the notice replied in the impugned order, the Court had passed an order in the following terms:

"8. The Cable Television Network Rules, 1994, stipulate under Rules 6 and 7 the `Programme Code' and `Advertising Code'. However, the consequences of violation thereof, are not clearly provided for. The matter thus requires consideration.
11. Accordingly, at this stage, the Petitioner is directed to run a 10 second apology every hour between 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on two days i.e., 16 th February, 2021 and 17 February, 2021.
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12. CM APPL. 5764/2021 is disposed of in the above terms. Let the counter affidavit to the writ petition be filed within four weeks. Rejoinder be filed within four weeks thereafter. In the counter affidavit, the I&B Ministry shall specifically state if there is any uniform policy followed by it in imposing penalties for violation of the `Programme Code' or `Advertising Code'."

6. In view of the aforementioned order dated 15th February, 2021 passed by this Court, the Respondent filed a short affidavit on the question of whether any uniform policy is followed for imposing penalties for violation of the 'Programme code' or 'Advertising code' (Rules 6, 7 of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 ). The said short affidavit states as under:

"8. With regard to the specific query of Hon'ble Court in Order dated 15.02.2021, as to whether there is any uniform policy followed by this Ministry in imposing penalties for violation of the Programme Code or Advertising Code, it is respectfully submitted that for looking into the cases of violations of Programme and Advertising Codes, an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary (I&B) with representatives from 2022/DHC/005409 the Ministries/ Departments of Consumer Affairs, Home Affairs, Law & Justice, Women & Child Development, Health & Family Welfare, External Affairs, Defence and a member from Advertising Standards Council of India. The IMC after considering all the facts and circumstances of case including CD recordings of the impugned programme, reply of the channel and gravity of violation, gives its recommendations on the action to be taken against the channel. The penalty recommended by IMC depends upon several factors on case-to-case basis viz., gravity of the violation of the Programme or Advertising Code, the content of telecast programme or advertisement, the time when the largest number of children are viewing etc.. The recommended penalty includes issuance of warnings, advisories, asking channels to run apology scrolls on their channel and off-air order for varying periods. The Ministry takes a final decision on the action to be taken with respect to the channel."