Darshan case: Karnataka High Court restrains 38 media houses from disclosing ‘confidential information’ contained in chargesheet

High Court of Karnataka restrains media houses from publishing confidential information in actor Darshan's murder case chargesheet.

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday restrained 38 media houses, including 18 television channels, 18 newspapers and two social media platforms, from publishing, printing, airing, and disseminating “confidential information” contained in the chargesheet filed against actor Darshan in the Renukaswamy murder case.

Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the interim order on a writ petition filed by the actor, who has complained that the media houses are conducting a “media trial” in the criminal case registered against him by violating all ethical journalistic standards and contrary to guidelines issued by the courts.

Apart from ordering the issue of notices to 38 media houses, the court directed the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to communicate this order to the media houses.

“Needless to state that the respondent-1 [Ministry of Information and Broadcasting] to take appropriate action against respondents 3 to 40 [media houses] if they telecast, print, air or publish any statements in violation of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994,” the court observed in its order.

The High Court said the petitioner has established a prima facie case to grant an ex-parte interim order.

Earlier, it was brought to the court’s notice that directions issued by the High Courts of Delhi and Bombay in the cases of State of NCT Delhi vs. Union of India, and Nilesh Navalakha and others (Sushant Singh Rajput case) vs Union of India respectively, and a circular issued by the Karnataka government in 2021 restricting disclosure of details of investigation and chargesheet filed in criminal cases, to the media.

It was also pointed out in the actor’s petition that his wife Vijayalakshmi had filed a suit before the civil court, which on August 27 issued an ex-parte temporary injunction restraining the 38 media houses “from airing, printing, publishing any statement about the final report inter alia FSL [Forensic Sciences Laboratory] reports, confessional statements and holding debate/discussion/ interview on the final report.”