Indian Express moved the Supreme Court against Gujarat HC’s order rejecting its apology for “false reporting.” Top Court will now hear the case along with TOI’s similar plea.
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NEW DELHI: The Indian Express newspaper has filed a case in the Supreme Court of India against a 2024 order from the Gujarat High Court. This High Court order had rejected the newspaper’s apology, which was published after it was accused of giving a “false and distorted narration” of a court hearing.
The Gujarat High Court had also directed the Indian Express to issue a new apology that clearly shows the mistake made by its reporter and editor. The Indian Express was not happy with this and has now taken the matter to the Supreme Court.
On Monday, a Supreme Court bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih decided to combine Indian Express’s case with a similar case filed by Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd., which owns The Times of India (TOI). The same Gujarat High Court order had also rejected TOI’s apology.
Now, the Supreme Court will hear both cases together.
This issue started when, on August 13, 2024, the Gujarat High Court sent notices to the regional editors of The Times of India (TOI), Indian Express, and Divya Bhaskar.
The court asked them to explain why they had given a “false and distorted narration” of a hearing related to the rights of aided minority institutions.
After receiving the notice, all three newspapers submitted written apologies in their affidavits to the court. But the court was not satisfied with these apologies.
Then, on August 22, 2024, a bench led by Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal passed an order asking all the newspapers to publish fresh apologies in a way that would make it clear that both the reporter and the editor were wrong in reporting the court’s words.
The newspapers followed the order and published the apologies the next day, on August 23, 2024.
But when the court reviewed the case again in September 2024, it found the published apologies were too small and not clear enough.
“Why have you not published these apologies in bold letter?”
-the Chief Justice asked the lawyers who were representing the newspapers.
Because of this, the Indian Express decided to move to the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court’s direction.
Back in September 2024, the Supreme Court had already agreed to hear TOI’s case and had put a temporary stay on the High Court’s order. This meant the High Court’s order and the contempt proceedings were not to be acted upon until the Supreme Court made a final decision.
The Supreme Court had said:
“Leave granted. Until further order(s), there shall be stay of the impugned interim order dated 02.09.2024 as well as the contempt proceedings. However, we clarify that the proceedings of the writ petition(s) will proceed in accordance with law.”
Now, with Indian Express joining the legal battle, the Supreme Court will decide whether the High Court’s direction to publish stronger and more visible apologies was fair or not.
CASE TITLE:
The Indian Express Pvt. Ltd. vs. The Registrar, High Court of Gujarat.
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