New Delhi: The Supreme Court, which is
deliberating framing guidelines for media reporting of court
proceedings, has added four more cases, including the Aarushi
murder case for widening the scope of arguments.
A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia
has been hearing the issue after applicatons were filed in the
case involving the dispute between Sahara Group and SEBI in
the wake of the leakage of documents relating to a sub-judice
matter to media.
While commencing the hearing, the bench had said any
party can file intervention application for making the
submission in the matter.
However, during the hearing, some advocates including
senior counsel Rajiv Dhavan, who was appearing for The Editors
Guild of India, had complained that the arguments were being
advanced by taking into consideration only one matter and in
absence of sufficient facts it was difficult to develop
arguments.
On his submission, the bench had said there are some
pending cases in which comments were made against the judges
and senior advocates.
Accordingly, an order has been passed on April 4 by the
CJI to include the four pending cases in which directions have
been sought for restraining the media from reporting the
criminal cases under investigation, for laying guidelines on
the reporting of sub-judice matters and initiating contempt
proceedings for incorrect publication of judicial matters.
These issues were raised in matters including that in
which dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar are accused of
double murder of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help
Hemraj, contempt case filed by an NGO against a weekly
magazine for publishing confessional statements of accused
facing criminal proceeding.
The bench has also included a case in which an NGO has
sought direction for laying norms for TV channels for
"minimising" presentation of scenes depicting violence and
sexual abuse in news reports and serials.
It has also added an intervention application filed by
News Broadcasters Association to assist the court on laying
down norms for governing the news coverage by electronic
media.
PTI
