Comedy Central went back on air from Nov 28

The channel was scheduled to go back on air on Dec 2. But as per a Supreme Court stay order, it went live on the evening of November 28

Comedy Central, which was asked by the Delhi High Court recently to go blank for six days from November 26, 2014, heaved a sigh of relief on Friday. The Supreme Court of India has stayed the Delhi High Court order asking the channel to go on air once again.

The channel, which was being penalised for airing inappropriate content in 2012, started broadcasting once again from Friday evening. According to the Delhi HC order, the channel was supposed to go blank from November 26 to December 1, coming back on air only on December 2, 2014 (Tuesday).

According to a statement issued to the press by Sujeet Jain, group general counsel, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd on Friday, "The Honourable Supreme Court today stayed the Delhi High Court order on the suspension of the channel, Comedy Central. We are happy to announce that the channel will resume broadcast this evening."

The channel was under the scanner for airing two shows - 'Stand Up Club' and 'Popcorn' in 2012. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had banned the shows and recently, on November 24 the HC has upheld the ban, ordering the channel to switch off signals for six days.

As reported earlier in an afaqs! story, MIB had issued Show Cause Notice (SCN) in June 2012 to Comedy Central for telecast of the said programmes which appeared to violate the following provisions of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994. According to the MIB, Popcorn was aired in July 2012 and appeared vulgar, obscene and against good taste. It did not appear suitable for unrestricted public exhibition and children. The other show, 'Stand Up Club', carried obscene dialogues and vulgar words derogatory to women and hence appeared to offend good taste and decency.

For the record, Comedy Central is an English general entertainment channel from the Viacom18 stable.