Plea in Delhi High Court, seeks directions against media trial of Wrestler Sushil Kumar

A plea has been filed in the Delhi High Court, seeking directions for making of standard rules for reporting criminal cases by the media, taking into consideration the right of the accused. It further, also wants the media to be restrained from engaging in media trial of Sushil Kumar, saying that his career, reputation and dignity has been raffled by media with help of the

“Media has now transformed itself into a Janta Adalats or ‘public court’ and started intervening in the proceedings of the court. The vital gap between the convict and accused is completely overlooked by the media by keeping at stake the cardinal principles of ‘presumption of innocence until proven guilty’ and ‘guilt beyond reasonable doubt’. Now what is being observed is a separate investigation done by the media itself which is called a media trial. Along with investigation, it includes forming public opinion against the suspect or the accused even before the court takes cognizance of the case. As a result of this, the public is prejudiced due to which the accused who should have been assumed innocent is presumed to be a criminal abandoning all his rights and liberty unrepressed.”

The plea has been preferred by petitioner Kamla Devi (Sushil’s mother) through Shrikant Prasad, a law student in Delhi.

It is to be noted that Sushil kumar , a two-time Olympics medal-winner ,who started his career at the age of 15 years and devoted his whole life for the country and made our country proud and provided recognition at international level. According to the petitioner, the wrestlers career has been finished within few days by the media channels and newspapers with the help of Delhi Police who is giving them each and every information about the case registered against him FIR no 218/2021 under various sections of IPC in PS Model Town on 5th January 2021, related to fight and then the altercation which occurred in Chhatrasal Stadium Delhi.

The Supreme Court has various time considered and warned the media to maintain balance between press and freedom of speech and expression but the media without caring of these has raffled these directions, stated the plea.

Further, the petitioner stated in the plea that Delhi police has categorised this in a sensitive case but they themselves are leaking each and every information to the media and as a result it is being showed on these on every channel with their distorted means with a sole motive of gaining TRP. This is totally against the right to privacy guaranteed in Article 21 of the Constitution (KS Puttaswamy Judgement).

“Where Rule of law is prevails in the country of India which says that no one is above law and the rule of law shall be in force. Article 19 gives everyone right o freedom of speech and expression but it does not gives right to end and finished someone career and life with distorted reporting and tarnishing interpretation of things.”- Excerpt from the plea.

On media trial the plea stated that,

In this particular case of Sushil Kumar where mere because such an famous personality name is involved in the FIR, the whole Indian media channels had declared him guilty and now they are running whether he should be hang or life imprisonment. True copy of only few news media channels in annexure from annexure no 1 to 29 shows that media has decided this case and continue engaged in tarnishing and ending his career with sensational keywords and shows. It is not the first time media trial is occurring, numerous time the media trial occurred and in all the cases the whole case gets disturbed due to various factors and ultimately no justice can be dispensed in all of them.

The petitioner averred that, the Supreme Court and High Court in many judgments have criticized the trial by the media on the sub-judice matter as it prejudices the opinion of the judge or the jury on that particular case and sometimes even on similar cases later. The Press Council of India has also prescribed in their 2010 edition of Norm of Journalism Conduct to abstain from performing such sensational journalism.

It was further noted that, there have been quite infamous cases that would have led the court to declare the accused as innocent, had it not been the wrath of the media in shaping the opinions of the people as well as impacting the judgment of the Judiciary. A few of such cases are- The Jessica Lal case, 2010, The Priyadarshini Mattoo case, 2006 and The Bijal Joshi rape case, 2005. It is the widespread coverage of the guilt of the accused and imposing a certain perception about him, regardless of any of the verdict given by the court of law. Where there has been high publicity of court cases, the media has often played an important role in creating hysteria among the viewers, making it nearly impossible for the trial to result as a fair one. There have been reasons why the attention of the media around certain cases is sensationally high.

The petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs –

1. Issue a writ /order/directions to the respondent no 1 to 2 for making statndard rules for reporting in criminal cases by considering the right of the accused and restrain from doing media trial. B.
2. Direct respondent no 2-8 to stop from reporting in this case of Sushil Kumar FIR no 218/2021, at PS Model Town, which are kind of distorted and malignant facts with sensational keywords. Direct respondent no 1 and 3 for conducting an inquiry about how the media trial is going on and with what objective it is occurring,.
3. Issue any writ/order /direction to the respondents so that the media adalat can be curbed and the honourable court for justice shall prevail in deciding the cases.
4. Restrain from disclosing statement of witnesses, expression and all information related to case of which only investigation agency has power.
5. Restrain media from declaring him guilty even before the decision of court.
6. Initiate a high power committee to unveil those who were leaking each and every information to the media by breaching right to privacy of the accused causing prejudiced, biased to him, his right of free and fair trial is taken up by the media with an intention to end his career .

Hence, the present petition.

The petition will be heard by the Bench of Chief Justice on 28^th May, 2021.