HC contempt notice against officials

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Tuesday issued a contempt notice to union Home Secretary Anil Goswami and Information and Broadcasting Secretary Bimal Julka.

The bench of Justice Ajai Lamba issued the notice on a contempt petition filed by social activist Nutan Thakur against Goswami and Julka.

Thakur had filed the petition against the duo for not following the orders issued by the bench of Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Mahendra Dayal, who had directed them to decide the petitioner's representations within four weeks.

The representations earlier made by the social activist were regarding framing of guidelines to direct newspaper publishers and TV news channel broadcasters to keep a record of their newspapers and broadcasts for a certain period.

The petition had pleaded that these records should be provided to those asking for them for a nominal fee and to name newspapers and news channels being referred to in their news instead of using cryptic words like "one newspaper" or "one news channel".