Supreme Court Grants Bail To Journalist Kommineni Srinivasa Rao In Amaravati Remark Case

The Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Manmohan passed the order while allowing Rao’s plea challenging his arrest.

The 70-year-old journalist was taken into custody on June 9 from Hyderabad and remained in jail for nearly a week.

The Court held that Rao himself did not make the alleged derogatory comments; instead, it was a panelist on his show who made the statements in question.

Questioning the Andhra Pradesh government’s action, the Bench stressed the need to protect journalists’ freedom of speech and expression.

“The petitioner himself did not make the statement on the live TV show and his journalistic rights need to be protected so that his freedom of speech is also protected. We direct that the petitioner be released in the FIR subject to conditions imposed by the trial court,” the Bench said.

The Court, however, made it clear that Rao must refrain from making derogatory statements on his show or allowing anyone else to do the same in future broadcasts.

Rao was arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police on Monday, June 9, after a TV programme he hosted on June 6 allegedly made disparaging remarks against Amaravati. The comments were made by a panellist participating in the show, not by Rao directly.