The notice has been issued after 28 members of the Upper House of Parliament petitioned Chairman Hamid Ansari, alleging that "defamatory remarks" had been made on the channel against Agarwal for his remarks made during a debate in the House on July 19.
In the letter dated July 21, the channel has been asked to respond by July 28, failing which an ex-parte decision would be taken in the matter.
"This is a serious breach of privilege of the House and member and should be acted upon."
The signatories included Agarwal, Javed Ali Khan, Neeraj Shekhar, Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Rewati Raman Singh, Jharna Das Baidya, Anand Sharma, Ravi Prakash Verma, Jaya Bachchan, Kiranmay Nanda, Tapan Kumar Sen, D Raja, Alok Tiwari, Sharad Yadav, T Subbarami Reddy, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Jairam Ramesh, Rajeev Shukla and Digvijay Singh.
More From This Section
Quoting its Chief Editor Suresh Chavhanke, the statement said, "Objectionable comments against Hindu Gods and Goddesses will never be tolerated."
He said that "for Lord Ram, he is ready to face even death whereas 28 MPs are a small thing," according to the statement.
Agarwal had made the controversial remarks during a debate on lynchings. BJP members had immediately objected to his comments after which Deputy Chairman P J Kurien expunged the remarks and asked the media not to broadcast or publish these.