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Newindpress.com
SC warns media against interfering with justice
Sunday February 6 2005 10:46 IST
UNINEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has warned the media against interfering with the administration of justice by narrating ''facts'' that may be used in the trial of a case.
Allowing an anticipatory bail plea by an accused in a dowry death case, a bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice S B Sinha took serious note of an article published in a magazine based on an interview with the victim's family even as the accused petition was pending before the court.
''We deprecate this practice and caution the publisher, Editor and the journalist who were responsible for the said article against indulging in such trial by media when the issue is subjudiced,'' the court said, adding that other journalists should ''take note of the displeasure expressed by us for interfering with the administration of Justice.''
One M P Lohia, facing charges of causing the death of his wife, had moved the apex court against a Calcutta high court order rejecting anticipatory bail to him in the case.
While Lohia's special leave petition was pending before the court, a local magazine published an article titled ''doomed by dowry'' giving a version of the tragedy and extensively quoting the father of the deceased as to his version of the case.
Expressing displeasure over the fact, the court noted that ''the facts narrated therein are all materials that may be used in the forthcoming trial in this case and we have no hesitation to note that this type of articles appearing in the media would certainly interfere with the administration of justice.''
Police had charged Lohia, who was a resident of Ludhiana, with harassing his wife Chandni for dowry and forcing her to commit suicide.
Chandni, who was married to the accused in February 2002, had committed suicide at the house of her parents at Kolkata in October 2003.
While the victim's parents charged Lohia with harassing Chandni for dowry leading to a depression, the latter said that his wife was schizophrenic psychotic patient and had attempted suicide even before marriage.
Without going into the merit of the case, the apex court decided to grant anticipatory bail to the accused on a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh and a surety of like amount and asked him to cooperate with the investigation.
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