Government to Take over BARC, Veterans Forum Files Petition in Delhi High Court

Should Government of India Take Over the BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) The Delhi High Court issues notices and Sought response from Union Ministry of Information and Broadcast.
Seeking Government take over of BARC the Veterans Forum for Transparency filed Petition in High Court.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Central government and the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) in a petition calling for a government takeover of the body that is responsible for statistics on television audience measurement.

A Division Bench Comprising of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad called for replies from the Union Ministries of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs as well as the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The Court gave all the respondents six weeks to file their responses and listed the case for further hearing on April 28, 2023.

Apart from the government takeover of BARC, the plea demands strict implementation and compliance of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 2016.

The Act provides for the establishment of a national body for developing standards for various processes and services in the field of education, health, advertisements as well as television audience measurement as well.