The story so far: A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on September 13 directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to prepare a comprehensive manual instructing police officers on the dos and don’ts of briefing the media within a period of three months. The Bench also ordered the Director Generals of Police (DGPs) of all States as well as the National Human Rights Commission to provide their recommendations for the manual.
These directives do not come in a vacuum. Last year, the Delhi Police admitted to informing the media about the outcome of AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s bail hearing even before the judicial order could be pronounced in open court. While Zubair’s lawyer questioned the status of the rule of law in the country and condemned the action of the police, senior Delhi Police officer KPS Malhotra said that he had ‘misheard’ the pronouncement of the order in the case registered over an ‘objectionable tweet’ posted in 2018 that allegedly hurt religious beliefs.
A day after Zubair’s arrest in the case, K.P.S. Malhotra, Deputy Commissioner of Police, claimed that transactions worth over ₹50 lakh had been made to his bank account over three months, following which Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha clarified on X that the police were linking donations received by Alt News to Zubair. Eventually, the claim was neither made a part of written submissions before the court while seeking Zubair’s police remand nor was it mentioned during oral arguments.
