Courts should not issue gag orders on media: SC

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.

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI:

"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."

The bench made it clear that judicial criticism, even when directed at a court's proceedings, does not automatically amount to contempt as it admitted an appeal filed by Wikimedia Foundation against the high court's order.