Supreme Court says trial proceedings reporting can be restricted

The Supreme Court has said it’s difficult to give any blanket guidelines to regulate media reporting of legal and sub-judice matters but some restrictions may be sought by affected companies in some of the cases.

It will however only be granted on case by case basis and by and large, the court veered towards freedom of expression.

The matter was being heard by five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, and it said the aggrieved parties will be able to seek postponement for the publication of court hearings. "We are not framing guidelines but we have laid down constitutional principle and appropriate writ courts will decide when the postponement order has to be passed on case-by -case basis," the bench also comprising justices D K Jain, S S Nijjar, Ranjana Prakash Desai and J S Khehar said.

"Hence, guidelines on media reporting cannot be framed across the board," the bench said.

The court, however, said it was just a preventive measure and was not a prohibitive and punitive measure. The court however believed that temporary ban on reporting of court proceedings was necessary balance the freedom of speech as well as fair trial. Such decisions would only be awarded if there was enough risk of prejudicing the trial.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/684-supreme-court-says-trial-proceedings-reporting-can-be-restricted.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/684-supreme-court-says-trial-proceedings-reporting-can-be-restricted.html