The central government filed an affidavit with the SupremeCourt seeking strong action against media houses for demonizing the Muslimcommunity in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat event. The Supreme Court notedthat the plea is short on details.
The top court highlighted the abuse of freedom of speechduring the hearing.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice A.S.Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian told the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta:"You cannot treat the court the way you are treating it in thiscase."
The bench cited that the Centre's affidavit has been filedby a junior officer, and it is also extremely evasive and does not providedetails on the aspect of bad reporting during the Tablighi Jamaat event.
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The bench asked "How can you say there was no incident(of bad reporting)?"
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for thepetitioners, contended before the bench that Centre's response seems, thepetitioner is citing bad reporting, as an attempt to muzzle the freedom of speech.
The Chief Justice replied, the Centre is entitled to make anargument, but "this freedom of speech may be the most abused freedom inrecent times".
The Chief Justice insisted the secretary of the departmentconcerned must file an affidavit pointing out the observation in connectionwith reporting on the incident.
The bench also asked for information on Acts, which haveexercised similar powers in the past, and had a brief discussion on theimplication of the Cable Television Networks Act.
The observations from the top court came during the hearingof a plea led Jamait Ulama-i-Hind seeking action against media reportsindulging in communalizing the Tablighi Jamaat meeting held in Delhi in March.
The pleas have been filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool andAdeel Ahmed.
Mehta submitted that a fresh affidavit will be filed on thenext hearing.
The bench said it wants to know, does the government haveany powers to ban or question the TV broadcast and insisted the Centre shouldfile an affidavit detailing steps it had taken to stop broadcasts in TVchannels which targeted a single community.