Curb reporting on police probes, apex court urged

New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) The Rajasthan government Thursday pleaded before the Supreme Court for restraining the media from reporting on matters related to police probes in criminal cases for protecting the rights of the accused.

The state government told the apex court constitution bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice D.K. Jain, Justice S.S. Nijjar, Justice R.P. Desai and Justice J.S. Khehar that the trial courts had the inherent powers to restrict media reporting on cases during the police investigation stage.

The court was hearing an application by Sahara India Real Estate Corp voicing its grievance over a news channel reporting its proposal made to the Securities and Exchange Board of India on securing the money it mopped up from the market.

The court earlier said that it would frame guidelines for reporting on sub-judice matters.