Read Time: 04 minutes

Synopsis

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (September 4) has stayed the Gujarat High Court's order refusing to accept the apology submitted by newspapers Times of India, Indian Epress and Divya Bhaskar over their 'incorrect reporting of Court's hearing'.

A three-judge bench of Justices BR Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan stayed the order passed by the High Court on September 2, 2024.

The High Court's bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi had sought a response from Times of India and the others seeking an explanation for wrong reporting of the Court's observations during the hearing. 

Notably, the high court was hearing petitions relating to the amendments to the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Act.

Gujarat High Court issued notices to the newspapers while observing that the reports treated the comments made during the hearing as the court's final views.

The High Court has also granted three days' time to the newspapers to tender a fresh public apology in bold letters at the first page of their newspapers while clearly informing the public about the wrong reporting.

"The affidavits tendering the apology by the editors of three newspapers, namely 'Indian Express', 'The Times of India' and 'Divya Bhaskar', placed in the court today, tendering public apology in the newspapers about the reports published in the newspaper edition dated August 13, 2024 of the ongoing hearing in this group of petitions, are not to the satisfaction of the court. All their affidavits are being rejected accordingly," the High Court had said in the impugned order.

High Court had also expressed its displeasure over the sensational way of reporting of its observations giving an impression to the common people that the court had already formed an opinion, which its said, was nothing but a misrepresentation of the court proceedings.

Case Title:  Bennett, Coleman And Co. Ltd. vs. Registrar High Court Of Gujarat