SC seeks states' response on police briefings for media

The Supreme Court Monday sought reply from all the state and union territories on the practices followed by their police forces on briefing media on the sensitive cases which are either under investigation or are being tried.

A bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice S.A. Bobde sought the response from all state governments and union territory administrations after Additional Solicitor General P.P. Malhotra urged the court to issue notice to all.

The states and union territories have been given four weeks' time to file their replies.

The ASG told the court that the central government, the National Human Rights Commission, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Uttar Pradesh government were already before the court.

The court sought response to the question that it had earlier posed to the central government and the CBI in the course of its last hearing on Aug 23, asking the state governments to inform it whether police top brass require their nod prior to speaking to media persons on the sensitive matters.

Noting the instances where junior ranking officers, including constables, speak to media persons, the court also inquired about the hierarchy of the officers authorized to speak to media.

The court's order came in the course of the hearing on a petition filed way back in 2008 on the media reports in the wake of murder of dentist couple Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar's daughter Aarushi Talwar and their domestic help Hemraj. The petition had sought direction to media to refrain from speculative reporting on the double murder case.