Electronic media has been a soft target for anyone and everyone. The Pune Court affirmed this statement with its judgment in the defamation case filed by former Supreme Court Judge P B Sawant. A complaint was filed by Justice Sawant against Times Now, a leading NEWS channel for showing the former's picture for about 15 seconds suggesting involvement in the Ghaziabad PF scam. The same was apologized by the channel for 5 consecutive days after such technical BLUNDER was committed. There is a fair chance of mistake due to similarity in names, as the Judge actually involved in the scam had similar kind of a name.
Pune Court took the issue too seriously to award damages of 100 Crores for the libel. Considering the value of Indian Rupee, how can a Court come to such an abrupt conclusion, awarding 100 crores for libel of a former Judge. It was a criminal case. Probably, the Pune Court failed to appreciate the fact that the channel had expressed extreme apologies and most essentially the absence of MALICE.
The said order was severely criticized by various jurists, lawyers, judges and most importantly media persons. The order is undoubtedly abrupt and damages, disproportionate. But the criticism of the High Court and Supreme Court in this case is improper as these Constitutional Courts have merely followed the procedure established by law. It a settled law that the Appellant needs to deposit the damages with the Court in case of an appeal to the High Court in any money decree. The same was done in this case too. Further, the powers of Supreme Court in a SLP filed under Art. 136 are limited and the Apex Court does not interfere with any intermediary order of the High Court. So where have these institutions gone wrong??? NOWHERE !!!
There are fair chances that the Pune Court order would not be upheld by the Bombay High Court. But is this a warning bell for MEDIA?? Do they really need to take care that they don't end up paying hundreds of crores for such inadvertent errors??
No comments:
Post a Comment