media
And here’s one of the problems with the opaque collegium and judiciary, which rarely if ever officially confirms anything to journalists, leaving reporting on the bench to often be sourced on hints and whispers.
The Hindu newspaper yesterday successfully persuaded the Supreme Court bench comprising of justices JS Khehar and Arun Mishra to change its mind in an ongoing litigation over a breach of privilege notice issued to its editor, Mukund Padmanabhan, by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Bombay HC blocks 110 filesharing websites completely after changed mind about SpicyIP blog arguments
We rereported earlier this week that the SpicyIP blog was cited by Bombay high court Justice Gautam Patel as having made a persuasive argument about not issuing blanket bans of websites against persons unknown (John Doe), in-part swaying Patel to only issue a narrow block of specific URLs on file sharing websites.
One of the major concerns of all investors and innovators, foreign as well as domestic is the time, effort and money it takes to resolve a dispute in India. The problem is increasingly difficult for startups whose dispute value may be less than a crore or even INR 50 lakhs. Increasing number of companies are becoming vary of arbitration due to its increasing cost and high probability of court appeal. Increasing number of companies are opting to refer disputes to mediation before proceeding to arbitration or litigation.
An unexpected positive result amidst tragedy for NLU Jodhpur students and alums yesterday, who mounted a campaign against media both national and international, which had wrongly re-reported and sensationalised a student Pranita Mehta’s accidental drowning as a daredevil selfie gone wrong.
NLU Jodhpur law student Pranita Mehta had died on Sunday while on holiday in Gokarna but her former co-students and alumni are up in arms about the sensationalist misreporting of her death by media.
A Supreme Court bench comprising justices JS Khehar and C Nagappan today restrained the media from reporting the proceedings of the hearing of the SLP filed by the Patidar leader, Hardik Bharatbhai Patel against the dismissal of his bail petition by the Gujarat High Court and seeking quashing of FIR lodged against him.
J Sagar Associates (JSA) retained partner Chitra Narayan in Chennai will go independent to focus on mediation, reported Bar & Bench.
She told the website, “I have been a mediator with the Tamil Nadu Media & Conciliation Centre for about ten years and a year and a half ago I along with others co-founded Private Initiative for Mediation and I want to focus on that now”, while JSA’s outgoing managing partner Berjis Desai said that “she was keen to pursue a career in mediation principally. Sad to lose an excellent resource”.
Narayan had joined JSA when the firm absorbed local start-up Vichar last year to open in Chennai. Vichar’s other co-founders Vinod Kumar and Aarthi Sivanand remain at JSA
The Supreme Court legal correspondent accreditation rules were changed to enforce stricter dress codes, and limits on permissible entry spaces, on journalists reporting the Supreme Court’s proceedings.
Journalists will not be allowed to enter the space between Supreme Court judges’ dais and the arguing counsel, commonly known as the “well” of the court, reported LiveLaw.
The Supreme Court’s Press Accreditation Panel has taken this decision, according to Justice Ranjan Gogoi who, just before dictating the court’s order in a disability reservation case chastised a journalist for entering the well, according to the LiveLaw report.
“Don’t rush to the well,” Gogoi told a journalist who got close to the dais, asking for the journalist’s name and organisation. Gogoi later admitted that the press panel’s decision may not have reached the journalist or his organisation.
Gogoi also said in open court that journalists must exercise restraint in reporting the exchange between arguing counsel and judges in court.
Wherever the legal system is perceived as being unable to deal with something speedily or fairly, the media can and will step into the breach, for better or for worse, argues Kian Ganz.
Kerala Governor and former Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam today told journalists to ensure that they report court cases after reading the judgments.
“First get the copy of the judgment... these days in the Supreme Court, it’s available on the internet after two or three hours. Then read the judgment and report. If such a thing takes place, I don’t find any reason to prevent the media from reporting court cases,” said Sathasivam, a former chief justice of India.
Delivering the convocation address at the Institute of Journalism here, he said journalism is a noble profession which not only informs the people but also enables and empowers them.
“A true journalist should be a reporter of the present and a pointer to the future. It was feared in the recent past that with the advent of electronic media and its astounding sweep, journalism would lose its impact and be relegated to the background.
“But the magic of the printed word and that of journalistic pursuit remained unaffected. In fact, both are complementary rather than contradictory, each aiding and abetting the other for mutual benefit,” he said.
Sathasivam urged journalists not to start and end as mere pen-pushers, transmitting news parrot-like to the reader.
“He has to analyse every bit of news, and report only those that will prove to be true. He should be honest to the core, but at the same time use his faculty of discretion to the full,” he added.
The Bombay high court has served a show cause contempt notice on the Mumbai Mirror for reporting a litigant’s allegation made in court earlier this year that a judge hearing was corrupt.
Kian Ganz explains on Newslaundry how over the last week the papers have been happily running with a news story about how AK Ganguly, the former Supreme Court judge who had allegedly harassed one of his interns after retirement, with headlines such as “Ganguly gets Centre’s clean chit in intern case”.
The only problem: it never actually happened. Read the full article on Newslaundry that shows how badly they got it wrong.
The Supreme Court yesterday recommended that former Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia should mediate in a dispute of the Bombay Parsi Panchayet (BPP) over two priests who were banned for allegedly performing allegedly unsanctioned ceremonies. The ban was quashed by the Bombay high court in 2011, and appealed by the BPP to the Supreme Court, having spent more than Rs 3 crore on litigation expenses.
The BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta said: "We are bleeding at the moment. In the last two months we have spent over Rs 30 lakh just to get dates for the next hearing." He added that Kapadia would be a good candidate because he was a Parsi, who'd be more easily accepted as a mediator by the community. [Mumbai Mirror]