The Andhra Pradesh high court’s gag order preventing the media from covering news relating to allegations of shady land deals in the designated state capital of Amaravati brings key issues on freedom of the press and an open and fair justice system into the spotlight.
The court’s stay on the inquiry and investigation by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on the FIR it has registered and the blanket ban on reporting the FIR’s contents by the media are arbitrary and an unwarranted intrusion on media freedom, legal experts believe.
The high court on September 15 told the ACB that “no coercive steps shall be taken in furtherance to the FIR” against any of the accused, and stayed the inquiry and investigation. It further directed that “the news in regard to registration of FIR or in the context of the said FIR shall not be made public in any electronic, print or social media to foist the office of a former Advocate General and also with regard to other alleged accused persons”.
The cabinet sub-committee appointed by the Jaganmohan Reddy government, in its report submitted to the high court on September 15, named Telugu Desam Party’s former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and the several other former ministers in his cabinet as “tainted”. They were involved, the report said, in insider trading during the land transactions in Amaravati and in the multi-crore fibre grid project. The sub-committee in its affidavit alleged that more than 4,000 acres were purchased by a section of people allegedly close to the then TDP government, with prior information about the capital coming up in Amaravati for throwaway prices from farmers in Krishna and Guntur districts.
M. Sridhar Acharyulu, a legal expert and former central information commissioner, told The Wire that the high court orders are “against the rule of law, core text of freedom of expression under 19(1) and 19 (2)”. He said the courts have such powers according to a few past judgments, but facts on the ground do not justify the invocation of such extraordinary powers. “A pre-publication restriction like this is judicial censorship without there being a clear and present danger either to the administration of justice or to public order,” Acharyulu observed, appealing to the high court to take the orders back.
The Supreme Court in Sahara vs SEBI (2012) held that the court can grant preventive relief on balancing the right to free trial and a free press. Such temporary restraint was granted by the apex court in the Sahara case, perceiving a real and substantial risk or prejudice to the administration of justice or free trial. But the question of prejudicing the trial process will not arise in this particular issue, as the case is at the stage of an FIR, said K. Nageshwar, professor in the department of mass communication and journalism, Osmania University.
Indian Journalists Union president K. Sreenivas Reddy and secretary general Balwinder Singh Jammu believe that the Andhra Pradesh high court’s blanket order was judicial overreach on the rights and privileges of the fourth estate, which is just as important as the other three estates.
The latest gag order has brought to the fore a couple of conflicting orders of similar nature given by courts in two different cases in the past. The plea of Asaram Bapu, facing trail in a rape case, for similar restraint orders was rejected by the Supreme Court. On the contrary, the Delhi high court granted gag orders against the coverage of news relating to sexual harassment of a law intern by a Supreme Court former judge, Swatanter Kumar.
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