Delhi High Court to hear Delhi Riots accused Asif Iqbal Tanha’s plea against Statement leak on August 2
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma has listed Delhi Riots accused Asif Iqbal Tanha’s plea against leak of his “disclosure statements” for consideration on August 2.
The Delhi High will hear Delhi Riots accused Asif Iqbal Tanha’s plea against leak of his “disclosure statements” in the case on August 2, 2023.
During the hearing today, Advocate Sowjhanya Shankaran appeared for Tanha. She submitted,“The basic overview is that there is an FIR registered in connection with the Delhi Riots. I (Tanha) was an accused in the FIR. My (Tanha's) bail application was pending before the learned trial court. During the pendency of my bail application and prior to filling of chargesheet in any court of law, more than 4 weeks before that, certain portions of chargesheet were read on National Television”.
“It included what is purportedly my ‘disclosure statement’ where the private respondent- Zee News and certain other respondents (OpIndia) start publishing entire material from chargesheet, which admittedly should not be in the public domain”, Shankaran added.
The counsel further stated that in January there were two intervention applications filed by media organizations, saying that they are also affected by this writ and so they want to be heard. “The same was heard at length. Justice Bhambhani then recused from the matter, because he had a past association with one of the intervenors. The matter then went before Justice Amit Sharma. He also recused himself”, she submitted.
“Our submissions on the intervention application are that they are not maintainable and that this is a private matter. There is no larger interest of media organizations or media houses. Apart from that this needs to be kept for arguments”, the counsel contended.
The bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma noted that Respondents No. 4 (YouTube) and 5 (Facebook) were deleted from the array of parties in November 2020. It also noted that two intervention applications have been filed by News Broadcasters Federation & National Broadcasters Digital Association (NBDA). Accordingly, the single-judge bench listed the matter for consideration on August 2, 2023.
It is to be noted that last week, Justice Amit Sharma ‘recused’ from hearing Tanha’s plea. Justice Sharma had ordered, “List this matter before another bench, subject to taking necessary orders of the Hon'ble the Chief Justice on Monday i.e. April 24.”
Notably, earlier, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani had recused from hearing the plea while stating that "no act on the part of a court must in any manner have a deleterious impact on the credibility of the justice system".
It is also to be noted that Justice Bhambhani had hinted recusal in the case in March when News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) filed an intervention application. He proposed his recusal from the case due to his "past association" with the organization.
"Both of you may or may not see any bias [but] I have to have the comfort level to decide the matter," Justice Bhambhani had said. Before elevation as a Judge of the High Court, Justice Bhambhani practiced in media law and had represented NBDA on several occasions in the past.
Tanha filed the present petition in 2020 claiming that his ‘disclosure statements’ were leaked by the Delhi Police and sought an investigation into the officials' misconduct as to who leaked the information to media channels. Through the present plea, he also sought guidelines on media reporting of ongoing criminal investigations.
Case Title: Asif Iqbal Tanha (Through Pairokar) vs. State of NCT of Delhi & Ors.