New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday, March 10, issued notice in the special leave petition filed by Malayalam channel MediaOne against the Kerala high court verdict upholding the ban on the channel by the Union home ministry citing ‘security’ concerns that the channel was not informed of nor given a chance to defend against.A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath posted the matter for March 15, LiveLaw has reported.On March 7, bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice A.S. Bopanna took note of the submissions of senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the news channel, that the plea needed an urgent hearing.The Justice Chandrachud-led bench also asked the Union government to produce the relevant files based on which the Kerala high court had upheld the ban on the channel.In February, the Kerala high court accepted the Union home ministry’s denial of security clearance to the Malayalam news channel and upheld the government’s decision to ban it from broadcasting.The Union government previously also told the court that the Ministry of Home Affairs had denied security clearance to MediaOne “over national security concerns based on intelligence inputs.”The channel and its editors have noted that little was offered by way of justification for the ban.LiveLaw has reported that the petitioners’ counsel, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, has argued that for the ten years during which the channel was on air, there had been no complaints. Rohatgi also objected to the Kerala high court division bench calling for the files in sealed cover.The channel had also contended the high court that MHA clearance was only required at the time for fresh permission or license and not at the time of renewal.“For a regional channel to survive is very difficult. We have hundreds of employees. How do we feed them. We request interim relief,” Rohatgi submitted.This line is similar to senior advocate Dave’s plea earlier in March, “For 11 years, we have been functioning and we have 350 employees and millions of viewers. We have been shut down because of some secret files from the Home Ministry. Both the single judge and the division bench of the high court have justified this (action of the government) behind my back.”Justice Chandrachud replied to Rohatgi with the line, “We have something in our mind. What we propose to do now is to issue notice and keep the matter on next Tuesday. We are asking them to place on record the files before us.”Notably, Justice Nagaresh of the Kerala high court in judgment, chose to set aside the Supreme Court’s ruling last year that national security could not be a “bugbear that the judiciary shies away from”.In that judgment, the Supreme Court had set up an independent expert committee to investigate the use of Pegasus spyware against journalists, opposition politicians and others, overruling pleas by the government that “national security concerns” required a veil be placed on the question of surveillance.