The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked a TV channel and the kin of Sunanda Pushkar not to indulge in “name calling” in connection with the case surrounding her death but said there could be a possibility of some posturing from both sides.
The court was hearing Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's plea seeking to restrain journalist Arnab Goswami and his Republic TV from alleged misreporting on his wife's death.
‘Offensive tweets’
Justice Manmohan made the observation after lawyers for both sides accused each other of not being careful while tweeting about the case as well as about each other.
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Mr. Tharoor, said that while the media house was now careful in how it reported about the case, some of its reporters were not exercising the same care while tweeting about it. On the other hand, advocate Malvika Trivedi, who appeared for the media house, contended that Mr. Tharoor had also made endless tweets against it which, she said, were offensive.
Mr. Khurshid, in response, said that his client's remarks about the media house were harsh and funny, but not defamatory and assured that such statements would not be made again.
The Bench, thereafter, said: “A little bit of posturing does happen on both sides. As long as there is no name calling, the rhetoric comes down and they respect your right to silence, then it should be fine.”
‘No gag order’
During the hearing, Mr. Khurshid said he does not want to gag the media and had never asked for a gag order. “Investigation is their right. I am not objecting to it if they come out with something after their investigation. Here, they have already held me guilty,” the lawyer said. The channel said it was not misreporting the case or the facts. The court, thereafter, told Mr. Tharoor's lawyers to file their response to the affidavit filed by the journalist and the channel and listed the case for hearing on September 21.
The observations came during the hearing of the Congress leader's ₹2 crore defamation suit against Mr. Goswami and his channel. Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five-star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014 in mysterious circumstances.