Queries under RTI crossing all limits: Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia

April 13, 2012

kapadiaNew Delhi, April 13: Chief Justice of India (CJI) S H Kapadia on Thursday said a very good law like Right to Information (RTI) was being misused to ask irrelevant and intrusive questions seriously impeding the working of the Judges and the Supreme Court.

When a bench of CJI and Justices D K Jain, S S Nijjar, R P Desai and J S Khehar were deliberating on reporting guidelines of sub-judice matters, Justice Kapadia said, "In RTI matters, since I took over as CJI, I have given answers to all questions except very few things. But the kind of questions and their number is also exceeding limit."

He gave samples of the irrelevant questions that were being put to the Judges taking away their precious time which could have been utilized in studying petitions and case materials. "Why did you attend Nani Palkhivala Lecture? What time did you leave? Did you eat lunch or had tea? Which lawyer invited you for the function? We are working hard but we are not being able to concentrate many a times because these kinds of questions," the CJI said.

"Are these questions relevant for press? It is all going beyond all limits. The RTI Act is a good law but there has to a limit to it," he added.

During the deliberations on reporting guidelines, the court asked senior advocate Anil Divan whether the Nariman Committee recommendations or the self-regulatory mechanism in News Broadcasters Association had provisions to deal with the problem of 'paid news'.

"If in the case of paid news comes before the association what steps would it take? What steps are prescribed in the self-regulatory mechanism? We are all for open court system. But we want to know if in a given case the court comes to a conclusion that reporting had vitiated fair trial and prejudiced the accused, what preventive steps are to be taken?" the bench asked.

The CJI took the lead in formulating the questions and said the court need not be misunderstood for this as it was coming across examples frequently relating to reporting on sub-judice matters. "Take for example today's article in The Hindu about Presidential Reference referring to it as 'all lies'," he said.

"The reference may not be sub-judice but it is coming to the court and the newspaper analyses all issues. How do we control such kind of things? Is it not interference in the administration of Justice? We are only asking to understand what should be done in such cases. Without saying whether it is right or wrong, we are giving the examples to get assistance from the counsel," Justice Kapadia said.

Divan, concluding his arguments, said he was still uncomfortable about framing of mandatory guidelines by the court as it would give a handle to accused and other vested interests would give various interpretations to the guidelines and rush to court seeking ban or postponement of reporting.

Senior advocate T R Andyarujina, assisting the court as amicus, said the US Supreme Court allows its proceedings to be telecast live thus leaving very little scope for misreporting by media. He said in India Parliament under its Privilege Rules could punish journalists for misreporting. "But in last 20 years, the Privileges Committee has only censured the erring ones and never punished them," he said. The arguments would continue on Tuesday.


Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: 18,653 COVID-19 cases have been reported in India in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally of coronavirus cases to 5,85,493, informed the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Wednesday.

As per the Ministry, there are presently 2,20,114 active cases in the country. The number of patients cured/discharged and migrated stands at 3,47,979.

507 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total deaths due to the virus to 17,400.

According to the ministry, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state by the virus with 1,74,761 cases including 7,855 fatalities.

Tamil Nadu is the second worst-hit state with 90,167 cases including 1,201 deaths. Meanwhile, Delhi has a total of 87,360 cases.

The Indian Council of Medical Research said that a total number of 86,26,585 tested up to June 30 of which 2,17,931 samples were tested on Tuesday.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 25,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, May 25: About 100 people, including a Magistrate and some police personnel, have been asked to go into quarantine after an accused, who was produced before a lower court here following his arrest, later testedpositive, officials said on Monday. The accused, who was arrested along with two others in connection with a case relating to illicit liquor transportation two days ago, had been shifted to thePoojapura central jail after he was remanded to judicial custody.

With his sample testing positive on Sunday, theman has been sent to a designated COVID-19 hospital. The Nedumangad court magistrate, before whom he was produced, 34 police personnel, including a circle inspector, who were on duty at the Venjaramoodu police station when the accused was broughtafter his arrest, some employees of a government hospital where his swab sample was taken and 12 officials of thePoojapura central jail have gone into quarantine, police sources said.

. Meanwhile, Malayalam film actor Suraj Venjaramoodu and Vamanapuram MLA D K Murali (CPI) are under self-imposed quarantineas they had attended a function in which the circle inspector had taken part.

Two days ago, a car in which illicit liqour was being transported had hit a policeman and sped away, but people managed to stop the vehicle and the three accused, who were in an inebriated state, were arrested, sources said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 31,2020

Srinagar, Mar 31: In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Tuesday declared 20 villages of Kashmir division as 'red zone'.
"20 villages including Parray Mohala Hajin, Chandergeer Hajin, Batagund Hajin in Bandipora district, Gudoora, Chandgam, Pinglena, Parigam, Abhama, Sangerwani and Khaigam in Pulwama district, Waskura in Ganderbal, Sedew, and Ramnagri in Shopian district have been declared as red zones," said Department of Information and Public Relations, J-K, in a tweet.

In Srinagar district, Mehjoor Nagar, Natipora, Lal Bazar, Eidgah and Shalteng villages have been declared as red zones.

"Chadoora in Budgam district of Kashmir division has also been declared as red zone," another tweet said.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir climbed to 49 after 11 more people tested positive in the Union Territory on Monday. While three of these cases were reported from Jammu region, eight were from the Kashmir division.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.