Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday quashed Schedule E of the Telangana Media Accreditation Rules, 2016, which categorised small newspapers into four tiers for accreditation purposes.
The court issued orders in the petition raising doubts about the validity of Schedule-E of GO Ms. No. 239 (gen. administration (I&PR) department) dated 15.07.2016, insofar as it categorised small newspapers in the state of Telangana into A, B, C and D categories for issuing accreditation cards.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao, found the categorisation arbitrary and unjustified, particularly in its denial of accreditation to journalists working at district and constituency levels for certain categories of small newspapers.
The court found that the 2016 Rules did not prescribe the division of small newspaper journalists into four categories. The court noted that under the previous policy, even small newspaper journalists at these levels were entitled to accreditation.
The court directed the state government to frame new guidelines for extending accreditation benefits to small newspaper journalists at district and constituency levels within two months, emphasising that these guidelines should be based on fair and rational criteria
