The Himachal Pradesh High Court today issueda contempt notice to the correspondent of an English daily for "misreporting" itsorder relating to ban on entry of vehicles on sealed roads, including the Mall Road, between Shimla club to HPTDC lift and State Bank of India to CTO.
A division bench of Justice Rajeev Sharma and Justice Sureshwar Thakursaid "it reminds the Court of the grim erstwhile era of yellow journalism."
The daily is a widely-circulated and well-respected newspaper in this part of the countryand it was never expected from a newspaper that there would be "repeated mis-quoting and mis-reporting" of the orders of the Court.
Observing that misquoting is prone to spread misinformation among the general public that the Judges have carved out a special privilege for themselves, the order said that" misquoting, repeatedly by the newspaper has lowered the authority of the Court and interfered/tended to interfere with and obstructed/tended to obstruct the administration of justice and has lowered the image of the judiciary.
"Newspapers must report an order of the Court as it stands, instead of creating sensation," the order said.
Granting concessions to senior citizens living in the localities close to the sealed road, the High Court today issued fresh order relating to mobility of the vehicles on the town's sealed and restricted roads.
However, the division bench rejected the plea to allow MLAs living at Metropole MLAs hostel to park their vehicles on the 'core Mall road' , which has already been declared banned for entry of vehicles except for the Governor, the Chief Justice and the Chief Minister, besidesemergency /public utility vehicles.
The court left this issue open .
Granting facility to women/ girls traveling in HRTC taxis, the court asked the Himachal Roads Transport Corporation(HRTC) to ply at least four more taxis immediately to ferry ladies/girls exclusively on its prescribed routes to minimise inconvenience and difficulties faced by them.
"Managing Director of HRTC shall ensure that HRTC taxis prominently display by putting placard that these taxis are for women/girls only," said order.
The bench ordered the police to ensure that there was no idle parking on the roads in the territorial jurisdiction of municipal roads Shimla.
The court directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to issue special permits, forthwith, to senior citizens living in the areas close to the sealed roads avoid any inconvenience to this category of citizens in case of extreme emergency.
Banning display of designations on the vehicles, the bench ordered "no vehicle, including government vehicles, shall display the designation of the concerned officer/official.
