Can members of Editors Guild be booked over Manipur report, asks Supreme Court

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, September 11

The Supreme Court on Monday wondered if FIRs could be registered against Editors Guild of India (EGI) members for a report they published on the local media’s coverage of the Manipur violence.

“It is a report, after all. The basic question is what they are arguing is this – that they have done a report. That is a matter of their subjective opinion. Can that really be…? This is not one of the cases where somebody was there on the ground and committed some offence… They published a report,” a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who represented the Manipur Government.

The Bench made it clear that it was not inclined to quash the FIRs lodged in Manipur against the guild members and hinted at sending the guild’s plea seeking the quashing of FIRs to the Delhi HC.

“You may make a larger statement that without any concession or any other future case that there is no objection…,” the CJI told Mehta. Extending the September 6 order protecting EGI members from arrest in two FIRs lodged against them in Manipur, the Bench deferred the hearing to Friday.