BENGALURU: A city civil and sessions court on Monday passed a temporary injunction order restraining the media, social media and digital media from publishing any news items falsely depicting former PM HD Deve Gowda and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy by showing their morphed photos and linking their names to the alleged sex scandal involving Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna without any substantive evidence to unnecessarily tarnish their image and reputation.
The court said the right of defendants -- media, social media and digital media -- from publishing articles under the right of defence cannot be fully restricted. However, showing fake and fabricated news items against the plaintiffs -- Gowda and Kumaraswamy -- without any admissible and substantive material can be prevented.
Vacation Judge HA Mohan, who is also the Special Judge for CBI cases, passed the interim order, which will be effective till the next date of hearing on May 29. The judge passed the order after hearing the suit filed by the plaintiffs, who contended that there are no allegations against them with regard to the alleged videos and the complaints but their pictures are being shown by morphing and other ways.
Referring to the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court on passing injunction orders by trial courts and also its observations on the right of journalists and that of a citizen to know about the conduct of public servants, the court said if false and fake news is published and shown in news channels it will definitely harm the reputation of any public servant who also has the right to protect his dignity and decorum and human rights. At the same time, a public servant should also conduct himself/herself keeping in mind the positions they hold, the court added.
Mentioning an article and another photo in which morphed faces of plaintiffs and others were published before filing the suit, the court noted it is not in dispute that Prajwal is the grandson of Deve Gowda and a nephew of Kumaraswamy.
Though there are serious allegations against Prajwal, it is not correct on the part of the media to show morphed faces of the plaintiffs in the absence of specific allegations against them, it added.