Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Bobde pulled up the Union government over a “junior officer” filing an “evasive” affidavit containing “unnecessary, nonsensical” averments on petitions challenging the discriminatory and communal coverage of the Tablighi Jamaat incident by some sections of the media
On Thursday, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Bobde pulled up the Union government over a “junior officer” filing an “evasive” affidavit containing “unnecessary, nonsensical” averments on petitions challenging the discriminatory and communal coverage of the Tablighi Jamaat incident by some sections of the media, the Hindu reported.
“You cannot treat the court the way you are doing in this case… A junior officer has filed your affidavit. We find it extremely evasive and brazenly short of details. It even says the petitioners here do not point to any instance of bad reporting,” CJI Bobde told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. Mr Mehta promised to file a fresh affidavit.
“We want the Secretary of the department [Information and Broadcasting] to file this affidavit… The Secretary has to say what he thinks of the incidents. We do not want any unnecessary, nonsensical averments like those made now”, CJI Bobde said.
Appearing for petitioners led by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, senior advocate Dushyant Dave said the present government affidavit even accused the petitioners of trying to gag the freedom of speech.
“Freedom of speech may be one of the most abused freedom in recent times”, the CJI responded. CJI Bobde was heading a bench comprising of Justices A S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanium.
A “blanket gag order” on the media in this issue would violate a journalist’s right to free speech and an informed citizen’s right to know, the government affidavit had claimed.
CJI Bobde, after the hearing began, asked whether the regulatory provisions of the Cable TV Act, which are meant for cable networks, would be “exercisable” on TV broadcasts. “We want to know if the government has any power to question or ban TV broadcasting signals”, he asked.
Regulatory bodies had issued advisories to the TV channels, the CJI said.
The court has adjourned the case for two weeks.
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