Delhi HC allows telecast of 'Pati Patni aur Woh'

Delhi High Court today allowed media entertainment firm NDTV Imagine to continue telecast of its popular show, ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’, which was earlier issued notice by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on September 30.

Justice Sanjive Khanna, vacating the interim order of NCPCR, stated that the commission not being a statutory body could not stay the telecast. The court allowed the channel to telecast the programme till the matter was settled in court and fixed December 9 as the next date of hearing.

NCPCR had earlier issued notice to the channel asking why the programme should not be stayed as it violated child rights but the channel moved High Court against the order, pleading that the commission had no jurisdiction to pass such an order.

‘The said order has been clearly in violation of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 because the Act des not give any jurisdiction to the commission to pass orders against citizens,’ the channel, NDTV Imagine, said in its petition to the High Court.

NCPCR had directed NDTV Imagine to stop the show, which features item girl Rakhi Sawant and is based on BBC Worldwide ‘Baby Borrowers’ for using toddlers in violation of child rights.

The company also said no reasons were provided for passing the order nor was it given a chance to represent its views.

‘No opportunity at all was afforded to the petitioner (NDTV Imagine) before passing the order.’ It also claimed that NCPCR could only recommend an action to the Centre, the Supreme Court or the High Court but had no authority to pass an order itself. NDTV Imagine in its petition said there was no violation of child rights as ‘parents make a voluntary offer of their children for the role’.

‘There is no nudity or illegal activity done on the child.

During the production and the shooting parents are on the site, medical facilities are on the site...the child’s well-being is taken care of by the celebrity couple and no money is being paid to them,’ the company said.