Recent cases in which courts have banned the press from reporting judicial proceedings violate India’s Constitution. Before his timely retirement, Justice C.S. Karnan made a series of shocking orders in two high courts against judges of the Supreme Court of India. He was sentenced to a term in prison for contempt of court. Then Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar made an order on May 9, 2017 forbidding the media from publishing the contents of the orders passed by Justice Karnan. The public surely has every right to know why he was sent to prison and the contents of his orders.

Orders such as this are not only erroneous in law but also provide wrong guidance to the high courts. On November 7, the Allahabad high court barred the media from reporting proceedings of a hate speech case in which Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath was the prime accused, saying “wrong reporting of the day-to-day proceedings of this case... is causing a lot of embarrassment as the observations are reported out of context and very often misquoted... We are constrained to pass the order directing that no one shall publish or cause to be published any proceedings of this case till the delivery of judgment”. The courts have ample power to deter deliberate slanted reportage, but such a ban is not supported by law.