After gag order, Patna HC now praises media

Three days after it prohibited the media from publishing or telecasting any news related to the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, the Patna High Court on Monday showered encomiums on the media.

“The media has played an important role in bringing out the facts related to the shelter home case. I am not against media or freedom of speech. But sometimes restrictions have to be imposed in the larger interest. Media trial is not proper,” said Chief Justice Mukesh R Shah, while hearing the CBI’s reply in the Muzaffarpur case.

The high court gave an indication that it would issue fresh guidelines (related to media reporting in the case) on Tuesday.

The high court, however, asked the CBI, probing the case, to submit a detailed reply on how the Superintendent of Police (SP) was transferred in the middle of the investigation. The Chief Justice expressed his dismay how an SP was assigned the job to probe Muzaffarpur case when he was already looking after cases in Ranchi as well as in Lucknow.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Congress legislator Prem Chandra Mishra, too, had questioned whether the CBI SP was transferred because some "big fish from Patna" were likely to be implicated.

Last week, the division bench of the Patna High Court, comprising Chief Justice Mukesh R Shah and Justice Ravi Ranjan, which is monitoring the shelter home case in which more than 40 girls were sexually abused, had asked the CBI to submit a detailed action taken report (ATR) on the investigation conducted so far.

It had also asked the premier investigating agency how the CBI SP, J P Mishra, was transferred within one month of the probe and a new officer Devendra Singh appointed in his place. The hearing will continue on Tuesday.