We want media to know its lakshman rekha: SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the exercise undertaken by it for framing guidelines for reporting court proceedings was aimed at making the press know its "lakshman rekha" and not intended for taking punitive action against scribes.

"Whatever efforts we are making, please don't understand that it is for punishing or taking punitive action. We only want that press should know what is the 'lakshman rekha' for them.

"We want to make them know what are the points that has to be kept in mind," a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said.

The bench said media should understand that the guidelines will have nothing to do with the punishment part.

An exercise has been undertaken to make them know that they cannot go beyond a "particular limit".

"This is the area we are exploring and this court has to lay down the contours of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Please help us," the bench, also comprising justices D K Jain, S S Nijjar, Ranjana Prakash Desai and J S Khehar said.

The remarks were made by the bench when advocate Ashok Arora, former Secretary of Supreme Court Bar Association, was making submission against the endeavour to frame any guidelines for media.

Instead, Arora, who was appearing for a lawyers association, suggested that "knowledge of law alone is not sufficient for administration of justice."

He stretched his submission by saying that spiritual training and training of mind will help the judges even if spin is given by media about court proceedings.

While Arora was making the submissions, the bench had said "spin given to statements made in the courts" often bothers them.

The advocate, who praised the role of media reporting in several high-profile cases including those involving former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and JMM bribery case, said there was nothing wrong in media recording the evidence of witnesses during the trial.

He also said publication of statement of witnesses recorded by probe agencies under section 161 of the Code of Criminal Proceeding during the investigation of the case was also not an offence punishable under the statute.

He said the monitoring of the investigation of a case by courts comes to an end at a particular stage but there was no restriction for the media in monitoring the development of a particular incident and its publication.

Referring to the submissions made by some other advocates, Arora said any attempt to frame guidelines would be like curtailing the freedom of press.

He said any restriction on the press would disturb the harmony between different sections of society and went ahead to speak that even the advocates have not been carrying out their fundamental duties.