Kriti Agrawal –
The Karnataka High Court ordered the state government to send extensive instructions to the state police to ensure that no information about the ongoing inquiry is released to the media until the investigation is completed.
The Division Bench led by Chief Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj stated, “We are of the opinion that extremely detailed directions are required to be provided to the police for ensuring that they do not leak the nature of the probe, information revealed during investigation, etc. The other direction will have to be regarding releasing the name of the complaint and the accused. No purpose will be accomplished by just issuing directives; the instruction must be enforced by starting proper disciplinary proceedings against the police for disobedience.”
During a hearing on a petition filed by H Nagabhushana R, the Court issued the directive.
The petition requested that statutory restrictions be enacted to prohibit the publication of indecent and obscene information in the electronic and print media as part of news or other programs.
The petition further requested that the dissemination of such materials be made a punishable offence with a deterrent penalty.
The Bench made oral observations throughout the hearing that there should be no sharing of information with the media, either directly or indirectly. If the information obtained during the investigation is made public, it may have an impact on the trial or hearing of bail petitions.