The law as to
how much and
who can report about court proceedings, is yet not very clear.
But, I think, this may make you clear, as to why everyone should not be allowed to do court reporting. Whoever, writes about court proceedings must have understanding of how courts work.
Rule 1: During Court Arguments, certain things are discussed and are visible. But certain obvious things are not discussed. Unless you can also report what is "Not openly spelled out", the reporting will not be fair.
Rule 2: Playing to the Gallery : Not only lawyers, but sometimes judges also, become influenced by presence of press in court room. They make some
irrelevant statements, in hope of appreciation of audience or people. A reporter must learn to ignore such statements.
Rule 3: There are Crucial Arguments and There are Stray(
Faltu /superfluous) Arguments. Lawyers are entitled to make both arguments. Judges can ignore stray arguments or can refuse to deal with it.
A reporter will be doing a bad reporting if he reports Stray Arguments and then says that the Judge did not deal with it.
LET ME EXPLAIN THROUGH EXAMPLE
Yesterday, I was forced to sit in court and hear second part of arguments in matter of Next Chief of Army Gen. Bikram Singh.
My another matter was listed in same court, much below this matter and was not likely to come before 2.PM. So I reached in Court room at 2.00PM.
I saw Attorney General, Solicitor General etc. sitting in front raw. My heart sank. If their matter was going to be taken up, then my matter will reach late. This is the only thing which bothered me. I was least bothered about my country or about next Chief of Army.
In the beginning, the Counsel for the petitioner, who was challenging appointment of next Chief Of Army, pointed out that in the morning session, Attorney General has made three false statements.
The Judges noted down these three points and then asked Attorney General to clarify.
The Attorney General clarified. All the three points were STRAY ARGUMENTS, which had no effect on merits of case.
For example, in morning session AG or SG had stated that certain affidavit was filed by Army in certain proceeding in other court. It turned out that affidavit was filed by an army officer on behalf of Ministry of Defence. This hardly made any difference.
The Judges however examined all the stray arguments also and they satisfied themselves that nothing much turned out from these.
Then Came Main Point of Judicial Review
Whenever such a decision is challenged, the Courts can only see
whether all the relevant material was there or not with Decision Making Authority.....and If the material was not placed before Authority, the Court can quash the appointment.....But if the material was placed before Authority, then Court cannot quash appointment.
The law is as simple as that.
AG placed relevant files before Judges. Judges checked themselves and found that all the allegations against the next Chief of Army, were inquired, explained and then decision was taken.
Therefore, there was no scope of judicial review, no reason to interfere with decision.
The matter was therefore required to be dismissed.
Matters which could be wrongly reported.
An argument was made that
1) Certain inquiry against Gen. Bikram Singh were pending. Therefore, the next chief of Army was not suitable to be appointed.
The Judges were not deciding any matters arising from those inquiry.....
In the present matter, they had power of judicial review only to see....... that all relevant material was placed before authority or not.
In this case, they found that all the matters relating to pending inquiry were also there on file.
Mind was applied to it by Government and thereafter decision was taken.
Thereafter it was beyond power of judicial review to consider whether in spite of these inquiries, he could or could not have been appointed.
The Court therefore rejected this argument.
This could be badly reported by saying that
"In spite of pending inquiry, SC refused to entertain petition."
Playing to the Gallery
I saw two points where counsels appeared to be playing to gallery.
1) The counsel made submission that entire Report/File has been tailor-made to facilitate appointment !!!
This argument attributed motives. There was no way other-side can reply to such argument. There was no way judges can scrutinize such arguments.
2) Second counsel stood up and started arguments. Normally, in Supreme Court, more than one counsel is not allowed to argue. Even than, second counsel stood up. The judges objected to his interruption. The first counsel suggested, let him also argue, since this is a public interest matter. So judges also allowed him to speak.
In my view, both the above points related to Playing to the gallery, and a good reporter should exclude them from reporting.
This is all I have to say about reporting a case. A good case reporting needs some conceptual understanding of how court functions.
Haresh Raichura
24/4/2012
