The Judiciary is the third branch of government. As with the Executive and Legislature, the public has a right to see and know and understand the functioning of this branch. That is why India, like every other democracy, has embraced the concept of open court proceedings and trials, except in those situations where, for security or other compelling reasons, in camera hearings are required. In the Mirajkar case ( Naresh Shridhar...

The Editors Guild of India on Thursday opposed in the Supreme Court the idea of temporary restraint on reporting of court proceedings saying enforcing these guidelines would lead to “infringement” of the right to free speech. Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan told a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia that any move to empower courts even to temporarily clamp down on reporting to protect the interests of the parties...

-The Telegraph The Editors’ Guild today opposed any move to empower courts to temporarily clamp down on reporting to protect the interests of parties in an ongoing case, saying it would amount to “pre-censorship” of news. Arguing for the guild, senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan opposed suggestions for a temporary gag on covering court cases — specially criminal cases and high-stakes corporate matters — if the courts felt it was adversely affecting the...

-PTI Stoking controversy, the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal banned English and mass-circulation Bengali dailies at state-sponsored and aided libraries but in a damage-control exercise late tonight said the order was being changed to include more newspapers.  The order by the state government evoked criticism from Trinamool ally Congress, Left parties and the intelligentsia which said the decision was "undemocratic, undesirable and worse than censorship." A demand for withdrawal of the...

“We are interested in prevention rather than initiating contempt proceedings”   The Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated that it would lay down guidelines for the media on court reporting with a view to striking a balance between protecting press freedom and protecting the right to life. A five-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices D.K. Jain, S.S. Nijjar, Ranjana Desai and J.S. Khehar said: “We have to balance Article 21(right...