[Chhatrasal Stadium Murder Case] Plea Filed Before Delhi High Court Against Media Trial Of Wrestler Sushil Kumar

A Plea has been filed before Delhi High Court seeking directions to restrain media trial of Sushil Kumar, saying that his career, reputation and dignity has been raffled by media with help of the Delhi police.

The plea has argued that the media trial will cause prejudice to his 'free and fair trial' which is his fundamental right under the Constitution.

"The excessive publicity of the accused or the suspect in the media before the trial in a court of law, either incriminates a fair trial or results in characterising the accused or suspect as the one who has certainly committed the crime, this amounts to undue interference with the "administration of justice", which calls for proceedings against media for contempt of court." the plea has said.

The petitioners have sought directions to the Centre and Delhi Police for making standard rules for reporting in criminal cases by considering the right of the accused and restrain the media trial.

Further, directions have been sought to media channels, including Aajtak ,India today, crime tak media networks, News Nation, Zee News network, Republic Bharat and Republic, the Lallantop to stop reporting in this case of sushil kumar's case with distorted and malignant facts and sensational keywords.

The plea has also sought directions to Union of India and Press Council of India to conduct an inquiry about how the media trial is going on and the objective behind it.

The plea has sought directions to curb media adalat, and restrain the respondents from disclosing statement of witnesses,expression and all informations related to case of which only investigation agency has power .

The petitioners have urged the court to appoint a high power committee to 'unveil those who were leaking each and every information to the media' by breaching right to privacy of the accused causing prejudice and with an intention to end his career .

The plea has stated that Wrestler sushil kumar won several awards and medals and earned huge respect and honour in the world, which has all been destroyed within days ,only for the mere reason that a FIR is registered against him for murder sections.

According to the petitioners, the media plays a pivotal role in moulding and shaping the opinions of the society, and is capable of changing the mass mentality, through its viewpoint. However, the need to look into its professionalism and reportage cannot be stressed enough, with the increase in the role of its democratic frontiers.

"Where there has been high publicity of court cases, the media has often played an important role in creating hysteria among the viewers, making it nearly impossible for the trial to result as a fair one." the plea has stated.

While citing the top Court's judgement in the case of Manu Sharma vs State of NCT of Delhi, the plea has stated that the Court had outlined the dangers of a "media trial"and observed that there existed a serious risk of prejudice being caused if the media exercised unrestricted and unregulated freedom in so far as carrying out parallel trial procedures without being held up to any standard.

Further, its been stated that though the media acts as a watchdog and brings a platform where the people can know about the things happening in a society, media trials have caused wrongful portrayal of alleged accused and have acted as a helping hand in destroying their careers merely by the fact that they were accused, even though they had not yet been portrayed guilty by the court of law.

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