Visitor book scandal: CBI chief requests media gag, SC refuses
NEW DELHI: CBI chief Ranjit Sinha, who is ensnared in a widening controversy about his meetings with a set of people who could be impacted by the agency's investigations into mega scams and other cases, suffered a setback on Thursday when the Supreme Court turned down his plea to stop media from disclosing the identity of his visitors.
"We have no control over the media. We are not going to pass any order. Till we take a decision one way or the other, we expect people to respect the process," a bench of Justices H L Dattu and S A Bobde said, although it added that the issue was sensitive and needed to be reported with responsibility.
Sinha's counsel, senior advocate Vikas Singh, had requested the bench to stop the media from reporting the matter. "The way media is going about reporting the matter, the court must restrain them. This is urgently needed as someone's reputation is at stake," he said.
The bench refused to heed his plea despite Singh's persistence. "But by that time, the damage (to the reputation) will be irreversible. Who the CBI director meets in private capacity at his residence is his private affair. It (the reporting) is huge invasion of his privacy," he said.
The bench, however, maintained that the press has the freedom to report. "We know the press has freedom to report. But we expect that the press will be responsible in such sensitive matters." It told advocate Prashant Bhushan not to hand over the documents to anyone other than the court in sealed cover.
It posted the issues emanating from the visitors' register and the allegations relating to alleged scuttling of 2G spectrum scam investigations for detailed hearing on Monday and asked NGO 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation' to file an affidavit in support of the allegations.
It said, "We have perused the documents. After going through it, we feel it is desirable that you (the NGO) file an affidavit in support of the allegations, the documents as well as the note given by you (Bhushan)."
The bench said this after returning to Bhushan the voluminous visitors' register and the letter written by then special public prosecutor U U Lalit, now a judge of the Supreme Court who had objected to Sinha's plan to file a new affidavit in the 2G scam.
Sinha's counsel Singh said the court should not entertain the application as it had made wild allegations harming the reputation of a very important person who was handling investigations into several key cases.
He accused Bhushan of leaking the visitors' register details to media despite the court asking him to submit it in sealed cover. "It is more than evident who has leaked the details to media. It is a matter relating to brazen violation of someone's privacy. And it was being violated despite the court's observations to keep the matter in sealed cover. For Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, there is no law. They are above law. That can do anything they like," Singh said.
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Visitor book scandal: CBI chief requests media gag, SC refuses