IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION I.A. No. IN CIVIL APPEAL NO.

9813 OF 2011/ CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9833 OF 2011 of 2012

IN THE MATTER OF: Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd. & Ors. ......Appellants Versus Securities and Exchange Board of India & Anr. .......Respondents AND IN THE MATTER OF: Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd., & Ors. .....Appellants Versus Securities and Exchange Board of India & Anr. .......Respondents AND IN THE MATTER OF: Raghul Sudheesh , Associated Editor, Bar and Bench, # 92/3, Marthahalli, Outer Ring Road, Next to Home Town, Bengaluru-560037. --- Intervening Applicant APPLICATION FOR INTERVENTION UNDER ORDER LXVII READ WITH ORDER VI (1) (37) OF THE SUPREME COURT RULES, 1966

To THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA & HIS COMPANION JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA The Intervener/Applicant above named MOST RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH: 1. The Intervener/applicant is a legal journalist working with a legal news website Bar & Bench based out of Bangalore as Associate Editor. Bar & Bench is a comprehensive news and analysis portal for Indian legal professionals which provides the latest in news, information, interviews and columns. The applicant is a law graduate and an alumnus of National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Cochin. The applicant is involved much in the field of legal journalism and has interviewed many legal personalities including Supreme Court Judges and also the popular petitioner, His Holiness Keshavananda Bharathi Sripadangalavaru. The applicant files the intervention petition with bona fide interest in the larger interest of the media community.

2. This Honble Court vide an order (A copy of the same is marked and annexed as Annexure P.1.) has given the liberty to parties to make submission relating to framing of guidelines for reporting of cases in Media and related coverage. Hence this application.

3. The applicant fully admits before this Honble Court that Court news reporting should be regulated in India but a

complete ban or postponement of reporting a case will not be a proper solution to the entire situation. A news is a news only when it is new and the postponement of it is the very murdering of the news itself. Regulation of the court reporting is necessary in the interest of healthy press and enhance the freedom of press. At the same time, restrictions need to be avoided. This Honble Court has ample power to regulate the freedom of press by framing appropriate guidelines, so as to fill the vacuum until the legislature legislate on those gray area.

4. The applicant would like to draw the attention of this Honble Court that in India, freedom of the press has been treated as part of the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, vide Brij Bhushan and Another v. The State of Delhi, AIR 1950 SC 129 and Sakal Papers (P) Ltd v. Union of India, AIR 1962 SC 305, among others. However, as mentioned in Article 19(2), reasonable restrictions can be placed on this right, in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence. Hence, freedom of the media is not an absolute freedom. 5. The importance of the freedom of the press lies in the fact that for most citizens the prospect of personal familiarity with newsworthy events is unrealistic. In seeking out news, the media therefore act for the public at large. It is the means by

which people receive free flow of information and ideas, which is essential to intelligent self-governance, that is, democracy. 6. For a proper functioning of democracy it is essential that citizens are kept informed about news from various parts of the country and even abroad, because only then can they form rational opinions. A citizen surely cannot be expected personally to gather news to enable him or her to form such opinions. Hence, the media play an important role in a democracy and serve as an agency of the people to gather news for them. It is for this reason that freedom of the press has been emphasised in all democratic countries, while it was not permitted in feudal or totalitarian regimes. 7. In India, the media have played a historical role in providing information to the people about social and economic evils. The media have informed the people about the tremendous poverty in the country, the suicide of farmers in various States, the so-called honour killings in many places by Khap Panchayats, corruption, and so on. For this, the media in India deserve kudos. 8. However, the media have a great responsibility also to see that the news they present is accurate and serve the interest of the people. If the media convey false news that may harm the reputation of a person or a section of society, it may do great damage since reputation is a valuable asset for a person. Even if the media subsequently correct a statement, the damage done may be irreparable. Hence, the media

should take care to carefully investigate any news item before reporting it.

9. In underdeveloped countries like India the media have a great responsibility to fight backward ideas such as casteism and communalism, and help the people in their struggle against poverty and other social evils. Since a large section of the people is backward and ignorant, it is all the more necessary that modern ideas are brought to them and their backwardness removed so that they become part of enlightened India. The media have a great responsibility in this respect.

10.

Any kind of prior censorship or ban on reporting matters will hamper the media from fulfilling this

pending

responsibility to the people, which is very much essential for a democracy to function.

11.

The applicant would also like to highlight an apprehension

which noted journalist Siddharth Varadarajan highlighted recently in an article, here to marked and annexed as Annexure P.2. It reads thus, My apprehension is that if the Supreme Court, which sits at the apex of the third branch of government, were to insist that reporters covering it abide by guidelines that the Court itself lays down, this would open the door to the other branches of government that too, at all levels making similar demands on the media as a precondition to gaining access to Parliament and Legislatures, Ministries, public

institutions, hospitals, universities, etc. The natural instinct of most politicians and bureaucrats is to hide or suppress information on one pretext or another. The adoption of media guidelines by the Supreme Court would embolden them, further undermining the public's right to be informed. Recently, for example, a Karnataka Assembly committee tasked with investigating the scandal involving Ministers caught on camera watching pornographic material sought to blame the media for recording what the Ministers were doing. Shouldn't you be focusing just on the official Assembly proceedings, journalists were asked. 12. In Naresh Shridhar Mirajkar And Ors vs State Of

Maharashtra And Anr (1966 SCR (3) 744) a nine judge bench of this Honble Court observed thus, In rare and exceptional cases only, the Court may hold the trial behind closed doors, or may forbid the publication of the report of its proceedings during the pendency of the litigation. 13. In the same case, this Honble Court also observed, A Court of justice is a public forum. It is through publicity that the citizens are convinced that the Court renders evenhanded justice, and it is, therefore, necessary that the trial should be open to the public and there should be no restraint on the publication of the report of the Court proceedings. The publicity generates public confidence in the administration of justice. 14. The applicant would like to bring to notice of this Honble

Court about the existence of a Press Office in the recently formed United Kingdoms Supreme Court. The UK Supreme Courts Press Office provides a comprehensive service to media professionals seeking information about the Court's hearings and wider work.

15.

Also every judgment delivered by the Honble Supreme

Court of UK is accompanied by a press summary. The press summary gives background of the case, judgment and reasons for the same and also note to editors. This is found highly useful by the media there, to study and analyse the judgment of the Court in a better manner. This is a mechanism which is worth emulating by this Honble Court. A sample press summary of the UK Suprme Court of UK is hereto marked and annexed as Annexure P.3.

16.

It

is

humbly

submitted

here

that

science

and

communication technology has developed to an extent where the information is disseminated in fraction of seconds to the other nooks and corners of the world with the help of internet and electronic media. The court cannot turn its behind from the dissemination of information by closing its doors and windows except in in-camera proceedings, since the judicial proceedings are open court proceedings as per the adversarial system followed in India. At the same time this Honble Court cannot turn its back by ignoring the fundamental rights of the citizens whose right to life, right to privacy and various other rights which might get severely injured due to the unregulated publication of the half backed news and by the paid news.

17.

It is also to be pertinent to note here that the UK Supreme

Court has recently allowed the journalists to tweeter from the court itself, to disseminate the information to the general public, without obtaining any prior permission from the court.

18.

Therefore it is submitted that: (i) It would be highly beneficial if this Honble Court can also set up a Press Relations Office, to handle the relation with the press and similar Press relations Office attached to every court complexes, to speed up the dissemination of information to the general public. (ii) To record all the court proceedings, both the video and audio, using the latest computer and information technology, so as to clarify the stand of the court in the future. (iii) It would be appropriate to start a Supreme Court Channel like LOK SABHA TV and to live telecast and all the court proceedings of the Supreme Court, since it is an open court and right to information is the right of the citizens of this democratic country. (iv) This Honble Court may frame appropriate guidelines to regulate the media to enhance its dissemination of information and which may not restrict it from exercising its freedom of the press.

PRAYER Therefore it is prayed that this intervention application may be allowed and the intervening applicant may be allowed to submit his views before this Honble Court, in the interest of justice.

Intervener Applicant

Advocate for Intervener /Applicant

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION I.A. No. IN CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9813 OF 2011/ CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9833 OF 2011 of 2012

IN THE MATTER OF: Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd. & Ors. ......Appellants Versus Securities and Exchange Board of India & Anr. .......Respondents AND IN THE MATTER OF: Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd., & Ors. .....Appellants Versus Securities and Exchange Board of India & Anr. .......Respondents AND IN THE MATTER OF: Raghul Sudheesh , Associated Editor, Bar and Bench, # 92/3, Marthahalli, Outer Ring Road, Next to Home Town, Bengaluru-560037. --- Intervening Applicant AFFIDAVIT

I, Raghul Sudheesh, residing at No. 92/3, Marthahalli, Outer Ring Road, Next to Home Town, Bengaluru-560037, presently at New Delhi, solemnly affirm and declare as follows: 1. That I am the deponent herein and the intervening applicant in the above case and as such I am well aware of the facts and circumstances of the case. 2. That i have read over the above said intervening application page No. to and of the annexures page to and I

have understood the contents therein which are true to the best of my knowledge and instructions. 3. That the annexures P.1 to P respective originals. are true copies of their has been drafted on my

Deponent Verification: I, Raghul Sudheesh, legal journalist and Associated Editor of Bar & Bench, verify that the contents of this application is true and correct to my knowledge and belief. Solemnly affirmed and on this 13th April 2012 at New Delhi.

Intervener Applicant

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION I.A. No. IN CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9813 OF 2011/ CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9833 OF 2011 IN THE MATTER OF: Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd. & Ors. ......Appellants Versus Securities and Exchange Board of India & Anr. .......Respondents AND IN THE MATTER OF: Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd., & Ors. .....Appellants Versus Securities and Exchange Board of India & Anr. .......Respondents AND IN THE MATTER OF: Raghul Sudheesh , Associated Editor, Bar and Bench, # 92/3, Marthahalli, Outer Ring Road, Next to Home Town, Bengaluru-560037. --- Intervening Applicant (Intervening Application) PAPER BOOK P.GEORGE GIRI - Advocate for the Intervener of 2012