File photo of Sunil Arora taking charge as Secretary in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday extended the stay granted on the bailable arrest warrant issued by the Press Council of India (PCI) against Sunil Arora, the then Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary, for failing to comply with the summons to appear before it.
Mr Arora has retired from service on April 30.
Justice Manmohan extended its April 19 interim order while asking the ministry and the Press Council of India to resolve the issue among themselves, saying "it's not a big deal".
The court had restrained the Press Council of India from proceeding further against Mr Arora in pursuance to its March 17 order to institute a suo motu inquiry into the "continued apathy" of the ministry towards the activities of the Press Council of India.
During a brief hearing, the counsel for the Press Council of India told the court that several issues had to be discussed, so the Press Council of India issued notice to the then secretary.
The counsel said there were matters concerning the powers of the Press Council of India, the autonomy and the sitting fee to the non-official members which required redressal.
The advocate said that to reduce the Press Council of India's dependency on the government it had proposed increasing the levy fee on newspapers. The levy fee is paid by newspapers depending on their size and circulation to avail themselves of the services of the Council, she added.
The Press Council of India said that all this was done for amicable dialogue with the government.
To this, central government standing counsel Ripu Daman Bhardwaj, claimed that all this issues were raised for personal benefit of the council members.
He said that the issue of levy has been resolved, and the remaining matters will also be looked into.
To this, the court asked the counsel for both the parties to settle the issue and listed the matter for further hearing on October 6.
It asked the Press Council of India to file their response to the Centre's plea challenging the suo motu enquiry being conducted by the Press Council of India and the summons and warrants issued by the PCI on April 1 and April 11 respectively.