BHAGWAT TO UNFURL FLAG, LEFT SEES RED

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat plans to circumvent an official directive banning political figures from unfurling the Tricolour at government and aided schools across Kerala by hoisting it at a Cbse-affiliated school in Palakkad on Republic Day. The CPI(M)-LED LDF government had issued a circular to all government and aided schools across the state that only heads of institutions will be allowed to unfurl the flag on their premises on January 26.

The Bombay high court on Wednesday struck down an order of a special CBI court that prohibited publication of proceedings in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case.

Justice Revati Mohite-dere held that the ban was unjustified and breached the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression of journalists.

The judge said the Criminal Procedure Code empowers only high courts and the Supreme Court to issue such orders and that, too, only in rare cases, and for a limited period of time. She said the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court had overreached its powers.

Acting on a plea filed by some of the accused in the killings of Shaikh, his wife Kausarbi, and Tulsiram Prajapati, a witness to the incident, the special CBI court on November 29, 2017, had barred journalists from reporting or publishing proceedings.

A group of journalists from Mumbai and an association of reporters had then challenged the gag order. The judge said such an order could not have been passed merely on the basis of apprehension of sensationalism expressed by some of the accused. “The rights of the press are intrinsic with the constitutional right that guarantees freedom of speech and expression,” said the judge.

“In reporting on an open trial, the press not only makes use of its own right, but serves the larger purpose of making such information available to the general public,” she said.

PROSECUTION FACES TOUGH TASK

With several accused discharged, the prosecution may find it tough to prove the involvement of the remaining 24