-The Telegraph The counsel for the Editors Guild, a professional body of senior journalists, today announced its exit from hearings related to an effort by the Supreme Court to lay down norms for covering court proceedings. “We have decided we will not address this bench any more. This bench has no lis (jurisdiction),” senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan declared when the court sought to know whether he would respond to arguments of those...

–PTI 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 interpret it as being intended for punishing or taking punitive action. We only want the press to know the ‘Lakshman rekha' for them. “We want them to know...

At least 75 complaints of corruption and misconduct against serving judges of the Supreme Court and high courts were forwarded in the last one year for “appropriate action” by the government to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and Chief Justices of concerned high courts.   The justice department of the law ministry, which forwards these complaints, has told HT that it “is unaware of any action taken on these complaints” by...

The Supreme Court has taken steps to lay down a code for media reporting. This attempt at prior restraint on the media is a dangerous move with precedent from authoritarian polities. In a context where the judiciary has been lax in defending the media from attacks which seek to curb its freedom, such unilateral moves will not remedy bad reporting but rather make conditions worse for the media to play...

The private member’s Bill that Rahul Gandhi’s close aide and Congress MP Meenakshi Natarajan was scheduled to introduce in Parliament last week lays down a draconian set of rules clearly aimed to gag and threaten the media in the name of “protecting national interest”. Called the Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill, 2012, it provides for a media regulatory authority — part selected by the I&B minister and three...