SCB gag order on media to stay as HC dismisses PIL

The restrictions on mediapersons entering into the campus of SCB Medical College and Hospital here is going to stay.
The Orissa High Court dismissing a PIL on it has observed that the Hospital diktat on journalists had been taken in public interest and does not warrant any (judicial) interference.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Amitava Roy said: "The restraint on doctors in their interaction with the media or the entry of media personnel to (the hospital) without the prior approval of the superintendent of the hospital, in our estimate, cannot by any means be construed to be illegal, unauthorised or arbitrary."

Following a brawl between some PG students of the Medical College and a section of media in the hospital campus, the authorities in June last year had issued a circular stating that journalists shall be allowed to enter inside the Hospital premises for covering any news only after obtaining prior permission from the superintendent.
The circular was challenged in the High Court by the Nationalist Lawyers' Forum and India Media Centre through its counsel Nishikant Mishra alleging that the impugned circular was an infraction of Constitutional rights of the journalists.
The High Court however, was of the opinion that the petitioners' plea was "unsustainable".