SEALED COVERS

The Supreme court has disapproved the practice of sealed covers which violate the fundamental principles of the administration of justice. A democratic country does not need a secret judicial system

- Lokendra Malik

RECENTLY, two benches of the Supreme Court objected to the disturbing practice of submission of information in sealed covers by the government and its agencies in courts, including the apex court. The first recent instance was in the Muzaffarpur shelter sexual abuse case, where a three-judge bench headed а by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana asked the counsel appearing for Bihar not to submit the action taken report in the sealed cover. The CJI remarked: “Do not give any sealed covers, keep it with you, I do not want any sealed covers”. On the same day, another three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud, also came down heavily on the central government for submitting information in a sealed cover while hearing the appeal of the Malayalam TV channel MediaOne. Justice Chandrachud said that he was averse to what is called "sealed cover jurisprudence”.

On the appeal of MediaOne, the Supreme Court stayed the operation of the impugned order passed by the Kerala High Court which had relied on sealed cover material submitted by the centre against the channel. The centre had banned the broadcasting of the channel, alleging that it was involved in anti-national activities. The framed a larger issue to examine the validity of the sealed cover procedure, especially in the background of the MediaOne case. It may be noted that it is quite disconcerting that the Kerala High Court ruled in favour of the central government without providing any opportunity to the channel to know the apex court what is being held against it, based on the sealed covers.