According to The Hindu, The Delhi High Court has temporarily lifted the 10-day ban on Viacom 18’s Comedy Central channel. On May 25, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting imposed the ban on the channel for airing two programmes – a French prank show that featured simulated sex with a dummy and a stand-up comedy act, which it said, “offended good taste and decency,” and “denigrated women.” Viacom 18 had challenged the ban in the court.

The report adds that a single-judge Bench upheld the ban, but another Bench of the Chief Justice stayed the order. The channel undertook not to telecast the programmes in the meantime. It argued that the ‘right to transmission’ was a fundamental right under Article 19, and the ban was “anachronistic” and went against liberal democracy.

Separately, according to The Wall Street Journal, a spokeswoman for Viacom 18 Media confirmed the court had lifted the ban but declined to comment further. It adds that in 2011, the Indian government framed new rules that require Internet companies to remove within 36 hours material that falls into a range of subjective categories—for instance, material considered “ethnically objectionable,” “grossly harmful,” “defamatory” or “blasphemous.”