Gujarat High Court says ToI painted wrong picture before Supreme Court to get stay in incorrect reporting case

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday temporarily halted proceedings initiated against Times of India (ToI) and Indian Express after the Supreme Court stayed its order seeking a fresh apology from the two newspapers and Divya Bhaskar for incorrect reporting of court proceedings..A Bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi, however, noted that ToI painted a wrong picture before the apex court by saying that contempt proceedings were initiated against it by the High Court."However, from the order passed by the apex court it seems that a wrong picture has been painted by the appellant before the apex court by saying that contempt proceedings have been initiated, which is an incorrect fact...the same may be brought before the apex court," the Court said in its order. It orally observed,"You have given a wrong impression that there was a contempt proceeding. And that is how you got an order [from the Supreme Court]...there was no contempt proceeding so far as Times of India is concerned. This is how you get orders in the apex court.".The Court was also informed that Indian Express was in the process of filing an appeal against its order before the Supreme Court..As regards the editor of Divya Bhaskar, the Court dropped contempt proceedings against him after noting that the newspaper has complied with the Court's directions by publishing an unqualified apology today."The apology tendered by the Chief Editor of the newspaper Divya Bhaskar is to the satisfaction of the court. A warning, however, is issued to the editor of the newspaper to be careful in reporting the courtroom's exchange in the ongoing hearing, so that any observation of the court may not present a wrong picture about the legal issues deliberated in the court," the order stated..Senior Advocate Devang Nanvati with Advocate SP Majmudar appeared for Indian Express. Senior Advocate Prakash Jani and Advocate Garima Malhotra represented Times of India.Advocate Maulik G Nanavati appeared for Divya Bhaskar..The Gujarat High Court had on September 2 rejected the apologies published by the three newspapers for alleged incorrect reporting of court proceedings. It said that the apologies published by the three newspapers on August 23 were not in bold letters or prominently placed, as was earlier directed.It had granted the publications time till September 5 to issue a fresh apology. This prompted Times of India to appeal before the apex court, where the proceedings were stayed by a Bench of Justices BR Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan. .On August 13, the High Court had issued notice to the regional editors of three newspapers, seeking their explanation for giving a "false and distorted narration" of court proceedings in a matter relating to rights of aided minority institutions.The newspapers had subsequently tendered their apologies in their affidavits filed before the Court, which was not satisfied with the same.The High Court had then passed an order on August 22 directing the newspapers to publish apologies in a manner which reflects clearly that the the reporter and the editor were wrong in reporting the Court’s observations.Subsequently, the same was done on August 23.However, when the matter was taken up for hearing on Monday, the Bench noted that the apologies published were too small and had directed the newspapers to republish the apologies in in bold letters and in the first page of their newspaper.