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Courts should not gag criticism, says top court
Hindustan Times Noida
|March 18, 2025
...To tell someone to remove something just because there is some criticism of what the court has said or done is not okay
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday emphasised that courts should not issue gag orders against media organisations and underlined that fair criticism of a judicial order cannot be construed as contempt of court, expressing concerns over a Delhi high court directive requiring Wikipedia to remove within 36 hours a page related to a pending 2 crore defamation suit filed by news agency Asian News International (ANI) against the platform.
"Why should courts be touchy about some comments made against their orders in social media?" asked a bench comprising justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, highlighting the importance of free speech rights for media organisations. The top court observed that it was "ironical" that ANI, itself a media entity, was seeking a gag order against another platform that disseminates information.
The bench questioned the Delhi high court's order issued on October 16, 2024, which held that criticism of a judicial order by the crowd-sourced encyclopedia Wikipedia amounted to "interference in court proceedings."
This story is from the March 18, 2025 edition of Hindustan Times Noida.
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