SC to deliver its judgment on media guidelines

The Supreme Court will deliver its media guidelines judgment for the reporting of court proceedings by media professionals of sub-judice matters on 11 September. The SC constitution bench is headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia and it had reserved its judgment on May 3 after 17 days of hearing. The hearing had started on March 27.

The issue went to the bench after certain documents related to the dispute between Sahara group and market regulator SEBI leaked in the media.

During the hearing the court expanded its ambit and asked others who were similarly aggrieved earlier, due to the publication and broadcast of sub-judice matter to present their views as well.

During the hearing all the parties were permitted to present their views and later the Editors Guild of India, the Press Council of India, the National Broadcasters Association and some national dailies and individual reporters were also asked to argue.

Most of the parties argued that the Supreme Court had no inherent powers to hear the issue to issue guidelines on the issue. The issue fell in the legislature domain, they suggested. At the same time, some of them suggested there should be guidelines to protect litigants as well.

The bench also had justices D K Jain, S S Nijjar, Ranjana Prakash Desai and J S Khehar, and it said there should be a proper balance between Article 21 (Right to Life and Liberty) and Article 19 (1) (A) (Freedom of Speech and Expression) of the Constitution.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/685-sc-to-deliver-its-judgment-on-media-guidelines.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/685-sc-to-deliver-its-judgment-on-media-guidelines.html