Justice C K Prasad likely to get second term as PCI chief

Former Supreme Court judge

C K Prasad is likely to get a second term as the chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI), sources said.

A three-member committee headed by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, which met here yesterday, has given its nod for appointing Prasad as the PCI chief for a second term, they said.

However, there was no official notification in this regard.

Prasad, when contacted, said that he was out of station and was not aware of the development.

The former SC judge was appointed as the chairman of the media watchdog in November, 2014 for three years. He had succeeded Justice Markanday Katju.

 

The Press Council of India is a statutory body with a mandate to act as a watchdog to oversee the conduct of the print media. It was reconstituted for three years in October, 2014, whose term ended in October last year.

According to the Press Council Act, the council shall consist of a chairman and 28 other members. In March, the government had notified the names of eight nominated members of the reconstituted council, while 20 other names are yet to be announced.

Prasad had said that the Council has submitted the names of the other members of the revamped PCI to the Centre, which will decide on its notification.

Last month, the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) had accused the PCI chief of "biased" selection of new members. The

claims were, however, rejected by the media watchdog, which said, laid down rules were followed in the process of induction of new members.

The INS had also moved the Delhi High Court on PCI's rejection of its nominee after which the court stayed the Council's decision.

On April 9, eight prominent media bodies had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to defer the April 11 meeting of the "truncated" Council, alleging that the PCI chairman had adopted "arbitrary" procedure to reconstitute the media watchdog.

Countering the allegations, Prasad had said that he had followed the rules while making the nominations.