The Press Council of India on Saturday applied to the Supreme Court to intervene in an editor’s petition challenging the media curbs in Kashmir, drawing criticism from two of its members and accusations of echoing the government’s stand from two journalists’ bodies.

Council members Jaishankar Gupta and C.K. Nayak questioned what they said was a unilateral decision by the PCI chairperson, Justice C.K. Prasad, to file the intervention plea on the petition moved by Kashmir Times executive editor Anuradha Bhasin.

The PCI seeks to help the court decide “in the interest of the freedom of press as well as in the national interests”, the intervention plea said.

Gupta and Nayak are on the council as office-bearers of the Press Association, a body of journalists accredited with the central government.

“The full council met on August 22… for the whole day but there was no mention of this petition,” they said in a Press Association statement.

The National Alliance of Journalists and the Delhi Union of Journalists accused the PCI head of “tom-tomming” the government’s interest and acting as its B team. They called for media unity to ensure that “watchdogs do not become lapdogs of the government”.