Delhi Court refuses to gag media in Pachauri sexual harassment case

Delhi’s Patiala House Court on Tuesday refused to restrain news networks from covering the case regarding alleged sexual harassment by former TERI chief RK Pachauri.

Pachauri had filed an application seeking injunction against Times Now, India Today and NDTV, stating that he has been subjected to media trial and has been proven guilty without there being charge or trial by the competent court of law.

He further stated that there are a large number of newspapers in India and with the advent of internet and mass media, it was impossible to implead all of them. Therefore, he has sought an injunction even against those persons who are not a party. For the said purpose, defendant no. 7 in the application was named as Ashok Kumar/John Doe.

Advocate Vrinda Grover, as well as one of the accusers, had also been made parties to the application. Senior Advocate Rebecca John, appearing for the said accuser, contended that the factual narrative of the accuser itself was sufficient to disentitle Pachauri from seeking any injunction.

She further contended that the woman’s perspective cannot be brushed aside merely because of delay, and that her voice cannot be gagged by way of injunctions as sought for by the plaintiff.

Representing Bennett Coleman and Co. (owner of Times Now), Advocate Ashish Verma contended that freedom of press is sacrosanct and intrinsic to the  Constitution.

He also said that a gag order is being sought to prevent the media from reporting facts, which implies restricting the right of the people to know. This, he said, was when the plaintiff himself contends that he is a public personality.

Additional District Judge Sumit Dass observed that the injunction sought for falls foul of the explicit position of law.

“Such restraints as sought for not only amounts to enforcing a gag order upon the media but at the same time prevents a right of the public to be kept updated about the developments – their right to know is infracted or trampled upon.” 

The court considered a multitude of landmark judgments concerning freedom of the press. including Naveen Jindal v. Zee Media,  Ram Jethmalani v. Subramaniam Swamy,  Khushwant Singh v. Maneka Gandhi and R Rajagopal v. Jayalalithaa.

Finally, the Court directed news networks to take the views of Pachauri or his authorized representatives while publishing or telecasting any news regarding the said case of alleged sexual harassment.

If such views or comments are not given by Pachauri, then it should be stated that an effort was made to ascertain the views. The court further directed the media houses to state that the matter is still pending before the court of law, while reporting on the same.

Read Judgment:

Image taken from here.