Tablighi Jamaat Case: SC Pulls Up Centre For Its Response, Asks How Can You Say There Was No Bad Reporting?

"This freedom of speech may be the most abused freedom in recent times," Chief Justice SA Bobde said during the hearing of a plea seeking action against alleged communal coverage of Tablighi Jamaat congregation.

Supreme Court of India

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has heavily come down on the Central government for its response to the plea seeking stringent action against media houses for demonizing the Muslim community over with the Tablighi Jamaat congregation.  The top court on Thursday emphasised the abuse of freedom of speech during the hearing. The bench pointed out that the Centre's affidavit was filed by a junior officer. Calling it an "extremely offensive and brazen" response, the bench court stated that it is also extremely evasive and does not provide required details about the bad reporting during the Tablighi Jamaat coverage. A bench constituting Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian told the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta: "You cannot treat the court the way you are treating it in this case". The centre is defending the media in this case and in the response to the Supreme Court, it stated that there was no instance of bad reporting. To which the bench asked, "How can you say there was no incident (of bad reporting)?" Senior advocate Dushyant Dave stated before the bench that Centre's response seems to be that the petitioner is citing bad reporting as an attempt to interfere with the freedom of speech. Chief Justice SA Bobde commented that the Centre is entitled to make an argument, however "this freedom of speech may be the most abused freedom in recent times". The Secretary has been asked to submit what he thinks of the incidents pointed out by the petitioner as the court find the current response extremely evasive. The affidavit does not include any response on the allegations of the petitioners on some TV channels spreading hatred. The bench further wants to know if the government have any powers to ban or raise questions over the TV broadcast. It insisted that the Centre file an affidavit stating details of the steps it had taken to prevent broadcasts in TV channels that had been targeting a single community. The Supreme Court was the hearing of a plea led by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind that is seeking action against media coverage indulging in communalizing the Tablighi Jamaat congregation held in Delhi in March, which was widely reported about in a negative light. The pleas have been filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool and Adeel Ahmed. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that a fresh affidavit will be filed on the next hearing. The top court stated it would take up the case after two weeks. WATCH | Supreme Court might not take up Hathras case