Navigating The Gray Area: A Study Of The Interplay Between Contempt Of Court And Legislature Reporting
Shreya Shreeja & Yash Gupta, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), NMIMS School of Law, Bangalore
ABSTRACT
In a democratic country like India, the role of the media is absolutely essential. The media has the potential to be an effective watch dog over the judicial system; however, for this to happen, it must be properly regulated and prohibited from releasing any biased material related to any subject that is now being considered by any court. The purpose of this paper is to have an in-depth discussion about legislature reporting. The findings of this study detail the ways in which the media influence the functioning of the judicial system along with the parliamentary privileges granted to the media w.r.t. to the specified press laws and Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. There is some history behind how we arrived to this point, as well as the legal system that has been established in order to deal with the very real danger that the media will taint a court case. In the context of contempt of court, the purpose of this study is to investigate the function that the Indian judicial system plays in preserving a balance between the constitutionally protected rights to a free and fair trial and the freedom of the press.
Keywords: Media, Judicial System, Legislature reporting, Contempt, and Freedom of Press.
