NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear a plea challenging a sweeping gag order that barred media outlets from reporting on matters related to Harshendra Kumar D, the brother of Dharamadhikari D. Veerendra Heggade of Dharmasthala, Karnataka, in connection with a high-profile burial case.
The order, issued ex parte by a local court, also covered reports on the alleged murder of women in Dharmasthala, Dakshina Kannada district. It directed some 390 media houses to remove nearly 9,000 links and stories related to the case.
A three-judge bench, Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justices K. Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi, asked the petitioner why the High Court had not been approached first. “You must go to the High Court first,” the CJI said.
The gag order stemmed from a defamation suit filed by Harshendra Kumar, secretary of the Sri Manjunathaswamy Temple institutions. He claimed that false and defamatory content had proliferated online, despite no FIR naming him or the temple authorities.
Meanwhile, the state government has formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the alleged murders. The plea before the Supreme Court was filed by the YouTube channel Third Eye, seeking to overturn the Bengaluru court’s restraint on publishing any potentially defamatory content about Harshendra Kumar in relation to the temple burial controversy.
