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The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to frame guidelines within three months for the police on media briefings to protect the rights of victims and accused in sensitive cases.
The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra directed the director general of police of all states as well as the National Human Rights Commission to give inputs. The next hearing is in the second week of January.
“It should be ensured that the disclosure doesn’t result in a media trial so as to allow pre-determination of the guilt of the accused,” the court stressed.
Recognising that factors such as age and gender of the victim and accused have an impact on public perception of a case, the court said the nature of disclosure by the police must not be uniform. The court reasoned that “it must depend upon the nature of the crime and the participating stakeholders including the victims, witnesses, and accused”. It added: “The age and gender of the victim and accused would have a significant bearing on the nature of the disclosure.”
The apex court pointed out the need for update as the guidelines created a decade ago were not in sync with the evolving media reporting of crime.
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“The guidelines by the Union were prepared almost a decade ago on April 1, 2010. Since then, with the upsurge of reporting of crime not only in print media but also electronic media, it has become important for there to be a balance,” said the court.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who is an amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the case, said, “We cannot restrain the media from reporting. But the sources (state/police) can be restrained. Even in the Aarushi (Talwar) case, so many versions were given to the media,” he said.
The court emphasised that the need of the hour was to reduce biased reportage as it may derail investigation. “The right to privacy is also a casualty,” it said.
