Media Trial in Indian Constitutional law
MEDIA TRIAL “I am a great lover of the press, a great lover of freedom of speech and expression but pluralizes your limits.’’ – Ram Jethmalani ABSTRACT Since the British India media plays an important role in every sphere. media is regarded as the fourth pillar of our democratic system after the legislature, the executive and judiciary. It is supposed to play a crucial role as a watchdog of our society. Earlier media has the power to change the world now media confine itself to spreading and limiting the people’s mindset to hatred and gives its own discretion about anything before the court’s discretion. Media becomes a kangaroo court, forgets its power with the passing of time, and becomes a puppet of political power. It plays important role in moulding the opinion of people. Every aspect of an accused’s personal life and character which have nothing to do legally with the investigation of any crime is under the public lens of scrutiny via the media trial. The centric point of submission focuses on Freedom only to give the right information but the media is only working for TRP and is working one step away from the court. “Is the media expected to be a silent spectator and insensitive to the happenings around and failing to quench the public curiosity about the case?”. Certainly not, but the question is how far the media can go. This will be answered later in the course of this Article. INTRODUCTIONS The word “Media trial” is not directly defined anywhere. But indirectly, this power is being given to the media under Article 19 provides freedom of speech and Expression to each and every person. Media has an important role in the democratic process. It provides valuable information to the government, the public at large. In the last few years, there has been a tremendous growth of media in the country in the form of print and electronic media. Its coverage of the trial process has increased tremendously. The media can be commended for starting a trend where it plays an active role in bringing the accused to the hook. Thus, “trial” ordinarily means a proceeding before a Court of justice. If so, there cannot be a trial by the media. But these words are often used to denote an exercise undertaken by the media virtually taking up the role of a judicial forum for which such exercise has been earmarked by the laws of the land. As it is rightly observed by the Hon’ble Justice M.K Mukherjee and D.P. Wadhwa that “A trial by press, electronic media or public agitation is very antithesis of the rule of law. It can well lead to miscarriage of justice”. The expression “Media Trial” itself is a misnomer. The word “trial” has not been defined either by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (“C.P.C.” for short) or the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (“Cr.P.C.” for short) which are the basic statues governing the trial of civil and criminal cases by the respective courts in India. Black’s Law Dictionary (9th Edition) gives the word “trial” the following meaning:- “a formal judicial examination of evidence and determination of legal claims in an adversary proceeding”. Sec. 2(7) of the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891 defines the word “trial” as “trial means any hearing before the Court at which evidence is taken”. THE RIGHT PILLARS OF MEDIA The media also plays important role in reducing white-collar crime by wealthy industrialist, corrupt officials, and famous personalities by greasing official’s palms and also plays an essential role in excavating the government’s huge scams. It has played an important role in shaping people’s minds and made a tremendous influence on people’s perceptions sometimes by making them aware and sometimes by putting blindfolds on their eyes and by showing the fake and prejudice of a person or things but one cannot deny in some cases where media shows its honest work by getting criminals to justice in many cases, such as Jessica Lal murder case, Priyadarshini Mitto Rape Case, Nitish Katara murder case. Due to the involvement of media the (Betting & Fixing row) by IPL Match came into the public conscience. In such situations, media played an affirmative role. THE JOURNEY FROM FREEDOM OF THE PRESS TO TRIAL MEDIA The Media Trial phrase is popular since 20th century and gradually flowed into the 21st century where it describes the impact of television and newspaper coverage on a person’s reputation by creating a widespread perception of guilt or innocence before, or after, a verdict in a court of law. Here question arises whether the media is accountable; if yes, then to what extent, making a venture to strike a balance between two conflicting rights, the right to privacy of individual versus the right of free press to report . The Hon’ble former chief justice of India Justice N.V RAMANA one of his speeches said as; “Doing justice is not an easy responsibility. It is becoming increasingly challenging with each passing day. At times, there are also concerted campaigns in media, particularly on social media against judges. Another aspect which affects the fair functioning and independence of judiciary is the rising numbers of media trial. .New media tools have enormous amplifying ability but appear to be incapable of distinguishing between the right and the wrong , the good and the bad and the real and fake. Media trial cannot be a guiding factor in deciding cases. The judiciary has also thrown light upon the role of media in a democratic state. The importance of Article 19(1)(a) was given emphasis by Justice Bhagwati in the case of Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India7 “Democracy is based essentially on free debate and open discussion, for that is the only corrective of government action in a democratic setup. If democracy means the government of the people by the people, it is obvious that every citizen must be entitled to participate in the democratic process and in orderto enable him to…