PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES AND ANR. versus THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ORS.

Citation: [2023] 12 S.C.R. 370 · Decided: 13-09-2023 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: D.Y. CHANDRACHUD, PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA, MANOJ MISRA · Disposal: Directions issued
cites 2 · see the full citation network in Lexace
Open in Lexace · Ask the AI about this case
Judgment (excerpt)

[2023] 12 S.C.R. 370 : 2023 INSC 833
CASE DETAILS
PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES AND ANR.
v.
THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ORS. 
(Criminal Appeal No. 1255 of 1999)
SEPTEMBER 13, 2023
[DR. DHANANJAYA Y. CHANDRACHUD, CJI,  
PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA AND 
MANOJ MISRA, JJ.]
HEADNOTES
Issue for consideration: Matter pertains to the modalities to be followed 
by the police in conducting media brieﬁ ngs during criminal investigation.
Media – Media brieﬁ ngs/reporting by police personnel – Propriety 
and procedure:
Held: Media reporting in criminal matters involves degree of public 
interest associated with the fundamental right u/Art. 19(1)(a) – Guidelines for 
conducting media brieﬁ ngs were prepared by the Union Ministry of Home 
Aﬀ airs over a decade ago – Since then with the upsurge in the reporting 
of crime, the print media, the electronic and social media have evolved 
signiﬁ cantly – There should be a Standard Operating Procedure which 
balances out the considerations – There is a need to have a uniform policy 
– Nature of the disclosure cannot be uniform since it must depend upon the 
nature of the crime and the proﬁ le of the stake holders, including victims, 
witnesses and the accused themselves – Disclosure should not result in a 
media trial – Media trials are liable to result in a derailment of justice by 
impacting upon the evidence adduced and its assessment by the adjudicating 
authorities – In view thereof, the Union Ministry of Home Aﬀ airs to prepare 
a comprehensive manual/guidelines  on media brieﬁ ngs by police personnel, 
within the stipulated period – Issuance of direction to all the Directors 
General of Police to give their suggestions to the Union Ministry of Home 
Aﬀ airs and the views of National Human Rights Commission would also 
be considered.[Paras 6, 17,18,19 and 20]
370
371
LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES
People’s Union for Civil Liberties v State of Maharashtra (2014) 10 
SCC 635: [2014] 12 SCR 54; A K Gopalan v Noordeen (1969) 2 SCC 734; 
Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited v Securities and Exchange 
Board of India (2012) 10 SCC 603: [2012] 12 SCR 256 – referred to. 
OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED 
ORDER AND APPEARANCES
CRIMINAL APPELLATE/ORIGINAL/INHERENT JURISDICTION 
: Criminal Appeal No.1255 of 1999.
From the Judgment and Order dated 22.02.1999-25.02.1999 of the 
High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Criminal Writ Petition No.1146 of 
1997.
With
Criminal Appeal Nos.1256, 1367 of 1999, Contempt Petition (Civil) 
No.47 of 2011 In Writ Petition (C) No.316 Of 2008, Tc (C) No.27 of 2011 
And Writ Petition (Civil) No.316 Of 2008
Appearances:
Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. (AC)
Arunabh Choudhury, Sr. Adv., Dhiraj, Ashutosh Dubey, Mrs. 
Anshu Vachher, Akshat Vachher, Ms. Abhiti Vachher, P. N. Puri, Prashant 
Bhushan, Aditya Sharma, Ms. Apurba Pattanayak, M/s. Parekh & Co., Ms. 
Sumita Hazarika, Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Ms. Shobha Gupta, Aditya Ranjan, 
Ms. Jessy Kurian, Ms. Tarjana Rai, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Siddharth 
Dharmadhikari, Bharat Bagla,  Sourav Singh,  Aditya Krishna,  T A 
Khan,  Wasim Quadri, Chinmayee Chandra, Mrs. Swarupama Chaturvedi, 
Arvind Kumar Sharma, Ms. Diksha Rai, Ms. Ragani Pandey, Ms. Pragya 
Baghel,  Jayant Mohan, D. S. Mahra, Anil K. Chopra, Anil Shrivastav, 
P. V. Yogeswaran,  Guntur Prabhakar, Dr. Monika Gusain, Ms. Suvarna 
Singh,  Sanjay Kumar Visen, Amit Anand Tiwari, Ms. Devyani Gupta, 
Ms. Tanvi Anand, M/s. Corporate Law Group, Samir Ali Khan, D. Mahesh 
Babu,  Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, Krishnam Mishra, Param Kumar Mishra, 
T. Mahipal, Gopal Singh, M. R. Shamshad, Manish Kumar, Ms. Shaswati 
PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES v. THE STATE OF 
MAHARASHTRA 
372
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2023] 12 S.C.R.
Parhi, Ravi Shanker Jha,  Ranjan Mukherjee, Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, 
Sarvjit Pratap Singh, M/s. Coac, Ms. G. Indira, Abhisth Kumar, Ashok 
Kumar Singh, Ms. Hemantika Wahi,  Shuvodeep Roy,  Deepayan Dutta, 
Chanchal Kumar Ganguli,  Praveen Agrawal,  Mukesh Kumar Maroria, M. 
Shoeb Alam, M/s. Karanjawala & Co. Ms. Tulika Mukherjee, Sudarshan 
Rajan,  Sunny Choudhary, V. K. Verma, Rajat Srivastav, T.C. Kaushik, 
Tarun Verma, Rajat Arora,  Shibashish Misra,  Hrishikesh Baruah,  Saumitra 
Srivastava, Ms. Radhika Gupta, Ms. Ruchira Goel,  Rajiv Kumar Sinha, 
Raj Kumar, Kapil Sahni, Sabarish Subramanian, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, C 
Kranthi Kumar, Naman Dwivedi, Danish Saiﬁ , Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, Ms. 
Rachana Gandhi,  Saurabh Trivedi,  Ashutosh Kumar Sh
Excerpt shown. Read the full judgment & AI analysis in Lexace.