BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday restrained 38 print, electronic and social media platforms from publishing, broadcasting, printing and disseminating confidential information contained in the charge sheet about the crime registered against actor Darshan Srinivas by the Kamakshipalya police in connection with the murder of Renukaswamy.
Noting that the petitioner has established a prima facie case for ex parte interim order, Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the interim order after hearing the petition filed by Darshan seeking to restrain the media platforms. Darshan moved the High Court after filing the charge sheet against him along with others by the police.
Directing the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to communicate this interim order to 38 media platforms, the court said that the Ministry is under obligation to take action against them if they violate the interim order.
Senior counsel Prabhuling K Navadagi argued that the wife of the petitioner had filed an original suit for a permanent injunction against the channels and the jurisdictional civil court passed the order on August 27 restraining the media channels by way of ex parte temporary interim order from publishing, broadcasting, printing and disseminating the information from the final report, Forensic Science Lab report, confessional statements pertaining to the crime registered by Kamakshipalya police against Darshan and others, pending adjudication before the ACMM Court.
Despite the ad-ex parte injunction order, the media platforms continued to air, publish and disseminate the confidential information contained in the charge sheet which is a violation of all canons of free and fair journalism, he argued.
Navadagi also cited the judgments of the Bombay High Court, Karnataka High Court and Supreme Court in favour of the restraining order.
Darshan contended that the media channels are deliberately demeaning his character and interfering with the investigation by conducting interviews and taking the opinion of the general public to create a negative opinion about him. He also alleged that the media platforms entered the dangerous and prohibited realm of 'media trial' by publishing interviews allegedly of retired police officers and his former employees.
