The Supreme Court of India will hear a plea on Friday that challenges a recent decision made by the Karnataka High Court in the Dharmasthala mass burial case. The HC on August 1 had cancelled (quashed) an earlier media gag order — that is, a restriction that had restrained the media from reporting on the controversial case.
“Around 8,000 YouTube channels are running defamatory material against the Dharmasthala temple,” an advocate submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice B R Gavai and sought urgent listing of an appeal against the high court order.
The plea, filed against an ex parte interim order of a local court, questions the legality of the HC directive, which directed as many as 390 media houses to remove nearly 9,000 links and stories related to the Dharamsthala burial case.
Harshendra Kumar D, Secretary of the Dharmasthala Temple body, moved the apex court seeking removal of what he alleges is defamatory content targeting the family that manages the temple.
“I think it’s already listed for tomorrow,” the CJI said. On July 23, the CJI-led bench declined to hear another petition filed by YouTube channel Third Eye challenging a sweeping gag order that restrained media houses from reporting on matters related to the brother of Dharamadhikari D Veerendra Heggade of Dharamsthala in Karnataka.
The gag order was over reports on the alleged murders of women in Dharmasthala in the state's Dakshina Kannada district.
“You go to the high court first,” the CJI said. The gag order was passed in Kumar's defamation suit alleging the spread of false and defamatory online content, despite the absence of specific allegations against him or the temple authorities in any FIR.
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