New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday issued notice to NDTV news channel seeking its stand on the lawsuits of high-profile lawyers R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan challenging the four-month ban imposed on their practicing in Delhi High Court and lower courts in the capital after a sting operation conducted by the channel alluded to their attempting to sway a witness in the BMW hit-and-run case.

A bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal, Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Aftab Alam issued the notice for NDTV to have its say in the matter as the Delhi High Court had delivered its verdict against the two lawyers on the basis of the channel's compact discs (CDs) showing them talking to prosecution witness Sunil Kulkarni and trying to goad him into turn hostile.

The high court had held the two guilty of interfering with the administration of justice by colluding together as prosecution and defence witness, respectively, to influence Kulkarni to turn hostile in the hit-and-run case involving former Indian Navy chief Admiral S.M. Nanda's grandson, Sanjeev Nanda.

While issuing the notice, the bench also depreciated the practice by TV channels and others of conducting sing operations and questioned its motive.

The bench wondered if more and more sting operations were being conducted to serve either one's business interests or to blackmail others.

The bench also questioned the channels' practice of conducting a sting operation but not airing it or after considerable delay.

In this context, the bench citied the example of a news channel allegedly filming the delivery of cash to some Lok Sabha MPs by a Samajwadi Party leader to get them to support the government during the trust vote in parliament July 22.

The bench said the channel never aired what it had caught on camera.

 

Source : ians