HC junks plea asking media to use 'martyr' for reporting casualties in terror attacks

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking directions to the media to use the words "martyr" or "shaheed", instead of "killed", when reporting deaths of security personnel in terror or other attacks.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao declined to hear the application filed by a lawyer, who was pulled up by the court for moving such a plea.

The application was filed by Abhishek Chaudhary in his main petition seeking martyr status for paramilitary personnel killed in the line of duty. The petition was dismissed in 2016 by the high court, which had said the plea was misconceived.

Dismissing the application on Tuesday, the bench said it was "unfortunate" that such a plea was moved by a lawyer, despite being aware that the main petition was dismissed.

Referring to the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, Chaudhary had said the deaths should have been described by the media using "respectful words" like "martyred" or "shaheed" and not as "killed" or "died".