Umamageshwari Maruthapan
The Bombay High Court Bench comprising Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale directed four Marathi Channels to scrupulously follow the guidelines issued in January 2021 by the Court.
A petition was filed by one Lahu Chavan objecting some media channels’ coverage of his daughter’s death. According to the facts, Chavan’s daughter had accidentally fallen from her house balcony and had died as a consequence thereof. However, the media had circulated that she was having some illicit relationship with one Y.
The petitioner contended the news stating that it is “defamatory and derogatory to the name of the Petitioner and his family, including his daughter.”
It was also submitted that twelve audio clips of the alleged conversations between the petitioner’s daughter and some unknown persons were publicized.
The respondents acknowledged the Bombay High Court’s order and asserted to restrain from publishing objectionable contents and also to follow the Court’s guidelines in this regard.
Several petitions urging restrictions on media from publishing ambiguous reports regarding the demise of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput were filed before the Bombay High Court.
They contended that the media industry was interfering with the case trials and setting out its own observations which has, in fact, made it difficult for the relevant authorities to carry out effective investigation.
The High Court had given a set of guidelines to be followed by the media channels in January 2021.
