HC declines to put any restriction on reporting of Rahul Gandhi's tax matter

The Delhi High Court today declined a plea made on behalf of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to put certain restrictions on the media reporting of his petition against reopening of his 2011-12 tax assessment in connection with the Young Indian-National Herald transaction case.

Gandhi's lawyers had urged a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla to order that confidentiality be maintained regarding the contents of the petition and the reporting of the matter should only be confined to the arguments in the court.

Declining to pass an order on the issue, the bench said "we cannot go into all this" as it would be akin to going on a "wild-goose chase" as it was not known who reports the contents of the matter and who was the source of the information.

This is not the first attempt by the Congress president's lawyers to put restrictions on the reporting of the case, as on the last date of hearing they had orally urged the bench to prohibit the media from publishing the court proceedings.

The court had then too rejected the plea.