The apex court also pulled up Centre for filing an affidavit stating that there ”were no instances of bad reporting” with respect to communalization of Tablighi Jamaat
Agencies / New Delhi
The Supreme Court observed Thursday as it took exception to what it called an ‘‘evasive’’ affidavit filed by the Centre in response to a petition alleging discriminatory news coverage of the Tablighi Jamaat issue saying “Freedom of speech and expression may be the most abused freedom in recent times’’.
Chief Justice of India SA Bobde made this remark when Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for petitioner Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind which said the Tablighi issue was reported in such a manner that it spread communal hatred, submitted that the government affidavit accused it of trying to muzzle freedom of speech.
At this, the CJI said, “they are entitled to make any argument like you people are. This freedom of speech may be the most abused freedom in recent times”.
The bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, pulled up the Central government for filing an affidavit stating that there “were no instances of bad reporting” with respect to the communalization of Tablighi Jamaat. The court also expressed its annoyance over the fact that the affidavit was filed by junior level officer and referred to it as being “evasive and brazen.”
The apex court has directed the government to file a fresh affidavit through Secretary of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and not through a junior officer.
“You cannot treat this court the way you are treating it. The affidavit has been filed by some junior officer. Your affidavit is evasive and says petitioner shows no instance of bad reporting. You may not agree but how you can say there is no instance of bad reporting shown,” the Chief Justice said. “Secretary of the department must file an affidavit and avoid any unnecessary and nonsensical averments as made now.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the government, assured he would personally vet the fresh affidavit and it shall be filed by a secretary level officer before the next date of hearing.
The case will be heard next after two weeks.
On 6 August, the Centre filed its response saying that a “blanket gag order” cannot be passed against media reportage and the government has taken adequate steps in order to prevent provocative and false information. It argued that such an order would destroy the freedom of speech and expression of the press. However, the court apprised the bench that the FIRs have been registered in cases where false reports have hurt the religious sentiments of people.
On 6 April, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind had moved the apex court claiming that the media has communalised the event. The plea states that the media has ‘demonised the Muslim community’.