The Kerala High Court on Tuesday stayed an order of a Kollam sub court restraining the media and others from reporting or discussing a criminal case involving V. Sreejith, son of Chavara MLA N. Vijayan Pillai.
The court held that the Karunagapally sub court’s order was “not legally sustainable”.
The High Court’s interim stay order came on a petition filed by the Chief Editor of Malayala Manorama challenging the order of the sub court. The petitioner contended that the sub court’s interim injunction was illegal.
The petitioner pointed out that Section 327 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC) clearly indicated that the place where a criminal inquiry or trial was held shall be deemed to be an open court. In fact, open trial was the rule and whenever exemptions were made they had been made only to secure the end of justice. Thus, the media were free to attend the trial or inquiry proceedings.
According to the petitioner, the Sub Judge passed the gag order in a criminal case pending in another court. The Sub Judge did not have any inherent power to pass such an order. In fact, such power had only been vested with the High Court or the Supreme Court. Nor the Code of Civil Procedure or the Code of Criminal Procedure did confer such a power on a Sub Judge to pass such kind of order. Therefore, the gag order was unsustainable.
The gag order came on a petition filed by Mr.Sreejith seeking to restrain the media and others from reporting or discussing a criminal case registered by the Chavara police involving him and Rahul Krishna, a businessman.
