'Press a powerful watchdog': Bombay HC quashes Sohrabuddin case gag order

In a major victory for the media, the Bombay high court on Wednesday quashed the CBI court’s order barring journalists from reporting the proceedings in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter trial. Calling the press “a most powerful watchdog of society”, Justice Revati Mohite-Dere ruled that the special CBI court had overreached its powers by issuing the gag order. 

Justice Mohite-Dere was hearing two petitions filed by a group of nine journalists and another by the Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists against the CBI court’s November 29 order restraining the media from reporting anything from the court proceedings in the case.

While deciding the