Gujarat High Court directs ToI, Indian Express to publish apologies for wrongly reporting court observations

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday ordered the editors of Times of India and Indian Express to publish apologies in their respective newspapers for wrongly reporting its observations..A Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi was not satisfied with the apologies tendered by the newspapers in their affidavits submitted before the Court."We are not accepting this kind of apology...This is not an unconditional apology. This is first justification and then apology...We want a public apology that should reflect clearly that the newspaper reporter and editor were wrong in reporting the Court’s observations and they will not do it in the future," Chief Justice Agarwal told counsel appearing on the behalf of the newspapers.She clarified that the apology must be published on the middle column of the front page, in bold letters, and must say that the statements published in the newspapers were wrong statements."You have written this article for the public. The public should not know that you are mistaken. Tendering apology to us is not relevant," the Chief Justice remarked. .The Court warned that if its direction is not complied with, then it would issue a contempt of court notice against the newspapers..On reporting of observations, the Court said,"If they are put up in this manner, everybody is in difficulty. Even the advocates..."[The audio of the YouTube video of court proceedings was unclear throughout]..CJ went on to state that the newspapers' actions were intentional. "This was a properly coordinated effort and planned way...because it is not acceptable that three newspapers writing the same thing in the same way, only language was different. Tenor of three articles were same. Three reports were crafted in the same manner...no difference between observations of the Court and the findings or the orders..." she remarked..The Court had on August 13 issued notices to the Ahmedabad editors of Times of India, Indian Express and Divya Bhaskar for giving a 'false and distorted narration' of court proceedings in a matter pertaining to the rights of aided minority institutions. .On finding that there was no representation on behalf of Divya Bhaskar today, the Court issued a contempt of court notice to its editors. It directed the publication to file its response within two days. .Senior Advocate Devang Nanvati appeared for both newspapers. Advocate SP Majmudar appeared for Indian Express and Advocate Garima Malhotra represented Times of India.