Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday referred to a larger bench the writ pleas for imposing restrictions on the media while reporting and debating court cases. The issues that have been referred to the larger bench include whether media has the freedom to reveal the details of the criminal cases which are under investigation and trial and whether guidelines need to be issued to the media in this regard.
The court which pointed to the High Court and Supreme Court verdicts on privacy and media freedom, said that there needed to be an authoritative judgement on the issue and hence was referring it to the larger bench. The High Court Registrar was directed to transfer the cases to the Chief Justice for appropriate order. A total of three writ pleas in this regard were considered by the High Court on Thursday. Pala based Centre for Consumer Education and Public Eye were among those who submitted the petitions. The court also considered another petition which came in the wake of the lawyer-media tiff outside the High Court.
The pleas included prohibiting the media from airing and publishing the oral observations of the judges while hearing cases, the photos and details of the accused, victims and witnesses should not be published until the judgement is pronounced in criminal cases, the photos and details of the accused, victims and witnesses should not be published, media debates should not be allowed in cases under the consideration of the court. The court said that since conflicting judgements have been pronounced by the court on media freedom and privacy in separate cases, the present petition was now being referred to the larger bench.
