A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking regulation of online content on OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Altt Balaji, and others, citing the availability of obscene content.

The case was heard by a bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih, who were hesitant to entertain the plea. They pointed out that the issue lies within the domain of government policy, and the court should not interfere in such matters.

"How can we...? It's in policy domain. It's for Union to frame regulations... as it is, we are criticized that we are interfering with the Executive functions, Legislative functions..." — Justice BR Gavai

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Despite the court’s reluctance, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for the petitioners, insisted that the issue is serious and requested to present his arguments. The bench then asked him to serve a copy of the petition to the Union Government and humorously added:

"We will dismiss it on the next date after hearing." — Justice BR Gavai (smiling)

This is not the first time the Supreme Court has been approached for regulation of OTT content.

In April 2024, another PIL was filed before Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, raising concerns over the availability of inappropriate content on OTT platforms. The plea argued that some films included nudity and were accessible to viewers of all ages. However, the bench advised the petitioner to first approach the Union Government with a formal representation. The petition was later withdrawn, with the liberty to pursue the matter with the government.

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Later, in October 2024, a different bench led by former Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra dismissed yet another petition that sought to establish a board to regulate OTT content and film releases. The bench made it clear that this, too, was a policy matter.

"The problem now is that the kind of PILs that we are getting, we have no time to deal with the genuine PILs. These are matters of policy — how to regulate the internet, how to regulate the OTT platforms — this is not something we can do under our jurisdiction." — Supreme Court Bench

Case Title: UDAY MAHURKAR AND ORS. Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS., W.P.(C) No. 313/2025