Taking suo motu cognizance of a sedition case launched by the UT Government against Tamil weekly Namadhu Manasatchi for publishing an allegedly seditious report on public health, the Press Council of India has sent notice to the government seeking a report on the facts of the case within two weeks.

On December 9, 2015, the government had resorted to the unprecedented step of invoking sedition charges against the Tamil news weekly following the publication of a “false, misleading and irresponsible news item” captioned ‘ Kalavathi ’ (Expiry) in the weekly’s October, 28-November 3, 2015 edition alleging that expired medicines are supplied to the patients in Government Hospitals of Puducherry.