NEW DELHI: As the Delhi high court ordered a stay on the order of the inter-ministerial committee relating to suspending telecast for 24 hours from midnight of 2 May, Movies OK has clarified that the channel was never taken off the air as reported earlier by indiantelevision.com (based on the ministry of information and broadcasting's website).

The ministry had directed the punitive action on the channel for allegedly showing a film 'Dil Jale' on 18 June last year with an 'Adult' certificate at 6.12 pm, refusing to accept the argument that the certificate was shown by human error as the version shown had been issued a U/V certificate.

However, the channel got the order stayed on the ground that it was issued the ministry directive only at 5.30 pm on 1 May. The court also heard counsel for the government had listed the case for further hearing on 26 July. Justice Rajiv Shakhder said "I am of the view that since enough time was not available to the petitioner to collect the relevant material in order to challenge the findings to which I have made a reference to above, I am inclined to stay the impinged order till the next date of hearing. It is ordered accordingly."
In a statement following a story by this website, the channel said: "Star India would like to clarify that it is factually incorrect to state that the channel faced closure for 24-hours as no such action was taken. Contrary to what the article suggests, the channel wasn't taken off air at all."