A group of foreign correspondents in the country today approached the Delhi High Court seeking permission to cover the day-to-day trial of the December 16 Delhi gangrape case.
Filing an application through counsel Meenakshi Lekhi and Harish Pandey, the members of the Foreign Correspondents' Club sought the court to review its March 22 order allowing the national print and electronic media to cover the trial saying that they were registered with Press Information of Bureau (PIB), Government of India, and are reporting to various foreign media as responsible journalists.
According to the plea, "since publication of journals, magazines, newspapers for which members of applicant society are reporting is permitted to be circulated in India and abroad and Press Information Bureau also recognises the same, members of the applicant association be permitted to report about the trial of the case of gang rape..."
Justice V K Jain, before whom the plea came up for hearing, today referred the matter for hearing to Justice Rajiv Shakdher who had lifted the media gag order passed by the trial court.
The plea is now likely to be heard by Justice Shakdher on Friday.
On March 22, allowing the plea of a group of accredited journalists from the high court, the judge had also set aside the Delhi Police's January 5 advisory which had said the proceedings in the case cannot be reported as the lower court had already taken cognisance of the charge sheet and the magisterial court's January 7 order for in-camera trial in the case.
