Police briefings to the media about the investigation of crimes “must not result in a media trial so as to allow for the pre-judging of the guilt of the accused”, the Supreme Court cautioned Wednesday and directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to prepare within three months “a comprehensive manual on media briefings by police personnel”. A three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said, “Media trials are liable to result in a deflection of the course of justice by impacting upon the evidence which would be adduced and its assessment by the adjudicating authorities.” The bench also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra noted that the existing guidelines on the subject were prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs “over a decade ago on April 1, 2010” and added that “since then, with the upsurge in reporting on crimes not only in the print media but in the electronic and social media, it becomes extremely important that there should be there should be a standard operating procedure which balances out all the considerations..”. “There can be no denying the fact that the disclosure of an official version of the investigation would ensure against speculation on crime reporting, which may be of disservice both to the public interest involved and the interest of the accused, witnesses, prospective witnesses as well as victims and survivors of crime. There is in that sense a need to have a uniform policy which can be adopted for notifying nodal officers who would be available to share the official version of the stage of the investigation consistent with the need to ensure that the disclosure itself does not derail the course of the investigation,” said the bench. The court said, “The nature of the disclosure cannot be uniform since it must depend upon the nature of the crime and the participating stakeholders, including the victims, witnesses and accused themselves. The age and gender of the accused as well as of the victims would have a significant bearing on the nature of the disclosure to be made as well. The guidelines must duly factor in the need to ensure that the disclosure must not result in a media trial so as to allow for the pre-judging of the guilt of the accused.” It asked the DGPs of all states to “communicate to the MHA” within one month “their suggestions for the preparation of appropriate guidelines” after which the ministry “shall proceed to prepare the guidelines after considering the views which have been received from the DGP’s” and other stakeholders including the National Human Rights Commission. The court was dealing with pleas which raised the issue of procedure to be followed by the police in investigating encounters and the propriety and procedure governing media briefings by police personnel where a criminal investigation is in progress. The first issue was dealt with and decided by the court in September 2014.
