Journalists challenge Sohrabuddin case gag order in Bombay High Court

In a bid to safeguard freedom of the press, a group of journalists has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court, challenging a gag order on the reporting of the Sohrabuddin case..The petition, filed by nine reporters from various publications, calls upon the High Court to uphold the journalists’ right to freedom of speech and expression and to ensure that they can perform their duty of informing the public..It is stated that some of the petitioners have experience in legal reporting for more than a decade, and have accurately covered serious cases like the Bombay Bomb Blasts case of 1993, the terror attack case of November 2008, and the serial train blasts case of 2006..Further, it is contended that the gag order passed by Special CBI judge of the Mumbai City Session Court SJ Sharma violates the principles of an open trial, as per Section 327 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Moreover,.“The Learned Trial Court has no powers to gag the media/press from reporting the proceedings of the trial if the trial is otherwise not held in-camera. Even otherwise, the Learned Trial Court ought to have considered that it does not have any inherent powers to order any in camera trial or to pass any gagging order, since the trial court is neither the High Court nor a Civil Court.”.The petition further contends that the trial court failed to establish that there were exceptional circumstances warranting a gag on the reporting of the Sohrabuddin case. Also,.“…the said case has already been extensively reported in the press and has received extensive media coverage. There is, thus, now nothing to be gained by barring the media from reporting the proceedings of the trial. Further, there has been no security threat to any of the accused or their advocates or to anyone else as a consequence of the media reporting so far.”.Thus, it has been prayed that the High Court set aside the trial court’s order, and in the interim, stay the same, pending the disposal of this writ petition..“It ought to be considered that, if the Impugned Order is not set aside, it will set a bad example and work as a judicial precedent for other Courts and will thus, further amount to recurring grave injustice and illegalities.”.On November 29, the Special CBI judge hearing the Sohrabuddin case allowed an application made by defence counsel Wahab Khan to ban print and electronic media from publishing or reporting anything on the trial till the judgment is passed..On being allowed to make submissions before the court, the media persons present in the court room that day protested the proposed ban. However, Sharma would eventually rule,.“Considering the senitibility (sic) in the matter, likelihood of happening of any untoward incident and likelihood of effect on the trial of this matter, in case of day-to-day publication of evidence that may be brought on record, I am of the view not to allow media to make publication of any of the proceeding during the trial in the matter until further order. It may happen that publication may create security problem for the accused persons, prosecution witnesses, the defence team and the prosecutor as well.”.The petition, filed by advocates Varsha Bhogle and Shailendra Singh, is likely to come up for hearing in January. The matter will be argued by Aabad Ponda and Abhinav Chandrachud..Read the petition: