New Delhi: The Supreme Court on October 6 said it wanted to give a "quietus" to cases pertaining to contempt of court action against media for linking three judges of the Karnataka High Court to the "Mysore sex scandal".

A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice A R Lakshmanan sought assistance from constitutional expert and senior advocate Fali S Nariman on this issue and reiterated that "the matter should end here". The court then adjourned the matter by four weeks.

The Karnataka High Court had suo moto initiated contempt of court proceedings against 11 dailies for tarnishing image of the judiciary as a high-level judges committee appointed by the Chief Justice of India to look into the matter had given a clean chit to the three high court judges.

When the dailies challenged the action of the high court against them before the Supreme Court, the Bench headed by the Chief Justice on March 28 had expressed deep anguish over the manner in which media scandalised the three judges by linking them to Mysore sex scandal without basis and had challenged them to "come out with the truth" so that action could be taken against persons involved in it.

While adjourning the hearing on a bunch of petitions filed by editors, printers, publishers and reporters of 11 dailies and publications challenging the initiation of contempt proceedings against them, Justice Khare had said during the last hearing that "our purpose is not to punish anybody, but are these people ready to come out with the truth even now?"

PTI