Journalists Jailed For Reports On Chief Justice
On September 20, 2007, four journalists of Mid Day, including Resident Editor Vitusha Oberoi and City Editor MK Tayal, were sentenced to four months jail on contempt of court charges, because of a report they had filed on the ex-Chief Justice of India, Y. K. Sabharwal. Whether the charges in the report were true or not was not considered in arriving at the decision.
Many in the legal community feel that in the 2006 Delhi sealing drive, Justice Sabharwal may have had a conflict of interest since his sons own a firm with relations to the Delhi real estate. Former Solicitor General KK Sud had called this behaviour "the height of indiscretion."
The High Court, however, sentenced the journalists without considering the veracity of the reports, and this led to considerable controversy. Ex-law minister Shanti Bhushan stated that the Parliament had in 2006 amended the Contempt of Courts Act to say that "if the allegations against a judge were found to be true, then they would not be considered contemptuous." In view of this, the judgment, he said, may be "only aimed at terrifying the media and an attempt to curb truthfulness."
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