By Nava Thakuria*
Press Council in Limbo Raises Democratic Questions
Questions Mount Over Headless Press Council
Can a statutory, quasi-judicial body like the Press Council of India (PCI) function for weeks without a chairperson? Should the world’s largest democracy allow its recognised autonomous media watchdog to drift without leadership and with key posts lying vacant? And how can a council meant to represent millions of media professionals operate with 13 unfilled seats for more than a year when its total term is only three years?
These questions have begun to trouble media professionals across the country after the tenure of PCI chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai ended on 16 December 2025, including the permissible six-month extension period. Yet no successor has been appointed so far, leaving the 15th Council headless and incomplete.
Several media associations have urged the Union government to appoint a new chairperson at the earliest. This writer also sent official communications in recent weeks seeking information on the present status of the PCI, but the Council’s office did not respond. Even a courtesy reply was not issued. Until recently, the PCI’s official website (www.presscouncil.nic.in), which is currently non-functional, continued to list Justice Desai—who assumed office on 17 June 2022—as chairperson. Media reports, however, state that the retired Supreme Court judge has already been appointed chairperson of the Eighth Pay Commission.
The institutional uncertainty has its roots in the expiry of the 14th Council on October 5, 2024. Subsequent efforts to constitute the statutory 15th Council have faced multiple obstacles. At present, the PCI has only a limited number of functioning members: Sudhanshu Trivedi and Brij Lal from the Rajya Sabha; Sambit Patra, Naresh Mhaske and Kali Charan Munda from the Lok Sabha; Ashwini K. Mohapatra from the University Grants Commission; Manan Kumar Mishra from the Bar Council of India; K. Sreenivasarao from the Sahitya Akademi; and Sudhir Kumar Panda, M.V. Shreyams Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Arun Kumar Tripathi, Braj Mohan Sharma and Arti Tripathi representing newspaper managements from big, medium and small publications.
Under the Press Council Act, the 28-member PCI, excluding the chairperson, must include 13 representatives of professional journalists—six editors and seven working journalists. All these seats remain vacant. The Council was originally established in 1966 under the Press Council Act, 1965 and later reconstituted in 1979 under the Press Council Act, 1978, to preserve press freedom and improve standards of newspapers and news agencies across the country.
The current crisis emerged after several national journalist bodies opposed a proposed change in PCI rules that would allow members to be selected from press clubs instead of recognised national unions of working journalists. Some organisations approached the courts, further complicating the process. They argued that most press clubs function largely as recreational or region-specific bodies, often confined to a city or town, and that many grant membership to non-working journalists such as academicians, writers, film personalities and diplomats to expand influence. Such bodies, they contend, cannot adequately represent professional journalists at the national level, unlike recognised journalist unions whose membership is spread across India.
For the first time in its history, the Press Council of India is functioning without a chairperson. This has raised broader concerns about who safeguards the interests of India’s print media sector, which comprises over 100,000 registered publications in multiple languages and frequencies, as certified by the Registrar of Newspapers for India. The PCI can receive complaints against newspapers, news agencies, editors and working journalists for professional misconduct affecting journalistic standards, though its powers to enforce penalties remain limited.
The regulatory gap becomes even more pronounced in a rapidly expanding media environment. India today has nearly 400 satellite news channels and millions of digital platforms operating through websites, WhatsApp and other technologies. These modern outlets do not fall under the PCI’s jurisdiction. While the Council is empowered to comment on the conduct of governments and to uphold press freedom, demands are growing to bring television, radio and digital media under its ambit and to strengthen its authority accordingly.
As the statutory media watchdog remains headless and incomplete, the questions raised by media professionals continue to echo: can an autonomous institution survive such an institutional vacuum, and what does this mean for the future of press regulation in the world’s largest democracy?
*Senior journalist
