THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Administrative Reforms Commission chairman V S Achuthanandan has written to Kerala High Court Chief Justice Mohan M Santhana Gowder seeking his immediate intervention to end the media ban in court.
Seeking to end the tussle between a section of the lawyers and media persons, the former Chief Minister said owing to the stand-off, information on court proceedings was not coming out.
“Barring a few lawyers, who have shown themselves to be undemocratic and rude, all the others-- judges, political leaders, socio-cultural activists and writers-- have condemned the negative attitude of certain lawyers,” the letter said. V S also pointed out that it was the obduracy shown by a section of the lawyers which had led to the court remaining out of bounds to the media.
“As a result of this, no information on the proceedings in various courts, which normally has great repercussions for society, gets through to the public. This is something that reminds us of the dark days of the emergency.”
According to the veteran leader, denying the media access to courts was condemnable on two counts-- it went against Article 19(1) of the Constitution and at the same time people were being denied information regarding the democratic functioning of courts.
“Any kind of disturbance in the proper functioning and discharge of duties of the courts is quite unwarranted. In the same way, any obstacles to the smooth functioning of the Fourth Estate must be viewed seriously,” he said. Further, the nonagenarian said, “Now, some of the lawyers even resorted to manhandling woman journalists, that too in the presence of a judicial officer. A deplorable twist to this incident is that the lawyers have made up a case against two woman reporters.”
Recalling incidents that furthered the cause of press freedom, V S Achuthanandan urged the Chief Justice to urgently intervene in the matter to ensure that the media was given unfettered access to cover court proceedings, besides the smooth functioning of the courts.