NW DELHI: Irked over some news reports on its hearing on the spike in air pollution, the Supreme Court on Friday rued that they attempted to project as if the court was the "villain" who wanted to close down schools in Delhi.
A special bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana was at pains and referred to some news reports to say that intentionally or unintentionally, they projected the judges in poor light who unlike political parties do not have any forum to rebut these claims.
"One thing what we have observed is I do not know whether it is intentional or unintentional, it seems some sections of the media and some people tried to project as if we are the villains who want to close down the schools. You (the Delhi government) had taken the decision on your own. You had said that you want to close down the offices and close the schools. You want to put the lockdown and everything and we have not given any orders. You see today's newspapers," the CJI observed.
"Some sections are portraying as if we do not want schools to open and we are not interested in the welfare and education of the students," said the bench which also comprised justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant. Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi government, said, "That is my complaint too. The court must put the blame where it is." He referred to a news report and said that one English newspaper even reported that the apex court threatened to take over the administration in the national capital.
On being asked by the bench, Singhvi named the newspaper and said that it had conveyed in particular that the hearing was 'an aggressive combat' in which the bench observed that it would take up the administration.
"You have the medium, you can go and explain, condemn everything and you can do whatever you want but we cannot do all this. Where do we go? Where we have said that we are interested in taking up administration," the CJI said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said that the bench did not even remotely suggest this and the concern over pollution was common for all.
"We cannot interfere with freedom of speech and expression of the press. We cannot take away the right. They can hold a mike and say anything. You are from a political party and can hold a press conference but we cannot do so. What to do," the bench said.
Singhvi attempted to distinguish between political and court reporting and said that "the press has the responsibility to report responsibly".
Justice Chandrachud also shared his experience and said that on another day, the bench was discussing the issue related to judicial infrastructure and had suggested that there may be a national body for doing something constructive.
What was said in the court was "twisted" and it was stated in some reports that the high courts will have to go with begging bowls, he said.
The Solicitor General in a lighter vein quoted Mark Twain: "If you do not read newspapers you are uninformed and if you read them then you are ill-informed."
The hearing also saw some interesting exchanges between the counsel for Uttar Pradesh and the bench when the lawyer opposed one of the directions of the commission on air quality management that industries, which do not run clean fuel, cannot be allowed to run for more than eight hours a day.
He said that sugarcane crushing goes on for days together and even boilers take 48 hours to get started and such a condition would adversely impact the farmers.
Senior lawyer Ranjit Kumar, appearing for UP, said that polluted air in the north Indian plains is presently coming from Pakistan as the state is in the downward direction of the wind.
"Closure of industries may affect sugarcane industries. UP is on downwind, air is mostly coming from Pakistan," he said. "So you want to ban industries in Pakistan," the bench quipped in a lighter vein.