Supreme Court to hear nearly 23-year-old case on media free speech vs legislative privilege

23-year legal duel (representative image)

NEW DELHI: Nearly 23 years after it stayed the arrests of some journalists following the Tamil Nadu assembly passing a breach of privilege resolution against them, the hearing scheduled before a seven-judge Supreme Court bench Wednesday, which promised to be a legal duel over the media's right to free speech versus the ambit of legislative privilege, appears to be an exercise for the records. For TN assembly, senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, flanked by attorney general R Venkataramani and solicitor general Tushar Mehta, told a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that the cause of action for the writ petition did not survive and the issue had become academic as the assembly withdrew the resolution imposing 15-day sentence on some journalists in 2004.

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A bench of CJI Kant and Justices Aravind Kumar, Prashant Kumar Mishra, Joymalya Bagchi, Vipul M Pancholi, Shree Chandrashekhar and V Mohana is scheduled to take up the petitions filed by N Ravi and S Selvam, then editors of 'The Hindu' and 'Murasoli' newspapers, respectively. Following the Nov 7, 2003, assembly resolution, arrest warrants were issued against the two editors and some journalists. CJI Kant said a seven-judge bench would assemble Tuesday, take the 2004 resolution on record and dispose of the petitions. Pendency in SC has increased to over 90,000 cases.

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