Lagatar24 Desk
The Bombay High Court has banned media reporting of cases related to sexual harassment in the workplace. The court has also issued a direction not to publish and broadcast the name of the institution during media reporting of such cases.
The Court has categorically observed that such cases are witnessing continuous exaggerated reporting, which is a violation of the rights of both the accused and the aggrieved party.
While issuing an order prohibiting media reporting of orders and judgments, Justice Gautam Patel of the High Court said that even orders in these cases cannot be made public. No personally identifiable information of the parties shall be mentioned in the copy of the Order. The court said that no order would be given in open court but in the judge’s chamber or in-camera.
The court has said that if it is violated by any of the parties, it will be treated as contempt of court. The court has said in its order that neither party, their counsel or witnesses can disclose to the media the details of the court’s order or any other filing in the case. At the same time, the court has said that only advocates and litigants will be allowed to take part in the hearing.
The court has further said that in the order ‘A vs B’, ‘P vs D’ shall be written and read. The order shall not mention any personally identifiable information such as e-mail id, mobile or telephone number, address etc. The names of any witnesses will not be mentioned and their addresses will not be listed. Regarding the present order, the court said that since this order has general guidelines, it is permissible to upload it. The court has further said that the records relating to the case should be kept sealed and should not be given to anyone without the order of the court. With this the court had issued a set of guidelines for hearing, dealing, and reporting on cases related to sexual harassment of women at the workplace.
