Apex court snubs CEC for seeking gag on media

The Supreme Court on Thursday snubbed the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for raising suspicion on the court reporting by the media and told him that the Election Commission can rather do something better.

A bench of Dr Justice Dhanjaya V Chandrachud and Justice MR Shah dismissed the plea that the media be restrained from reporting on oral observations made in court proceedings, saying it will be a ‘retrograde’ act. It also rejected a plea to remove Madras High Court's "murder charges" remark at the EC.

Justice Chandrachud went on to point out that many international courts allow the streaming of the court proceedings and even the Gujarat HC has also allowed it. "In this background, it would be retrograde for the court to gag reporting of proceedings and uphold the constitutional ethos."

"This is also a part of augmenting the integrity of the judiciary. With the advent of technology, we are seeing reporting with real time updates. It's a part of freedom of speech and expression. It's an extension of open court. Now people are more digital oriented and hence look to internet for information. Hence it would do no good to prevent a new medium to report proceedings. Constitutional bodies will do better than complain about this," the Bench said. It went on to stress that the Internet has revolutionalised the court room reporting and there should not be a good enough reason for the courts to engage with evolving technology. It said freedom of media lies in comments and reporting of the proceedings. News have travelled from newspaper and radio to Internet."

Noting that open access to the courts is the cornerstone of the constitutional freedom, the Court said Article 19.1 covers freedom of press, freedom of speech and expression and thus it covers freedom to cover court proceedings too. "We say courts be open except for incamera proceedings like marital privacy," the court said.