Dharmasthala 'burial' case: Supreme Court declines hearing on plea against gag order

The plea, filed against an ex parte interim order of a local court, questioned the legality of the directive which directed as many as 390 media houses to remove nearly 9,000 links and stories related to the Dharamsthala burial case.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider a plea against an ex-parte gag order issued against the media for publishing any content related to Sri Manjunathaswamy temple, Dharmasthala and also in relation to Dharmasthala burial case.

A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi asked the counsel who sought an urgent hearing, to approach the high court first against the Bengaluru court's order.

The counsel submitted that an ex parte gag order has been issued against 390 media houses. The order was passed in three hours, to delete 8,800 links/stories. This is in the backdrop of SIT constituted by Karnataka state with DIG level officers.

The Bengaluru court issued the order on July 18 in a civil suit filed by Harshendra Kumar D, head of the Dharmasthala temple administration, demanding the removal of thousands of media links from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and news portals.

An FIR was filed earlier this month, based on whistleblower allegations of mass burials near Dharmasthala. A woman named Sujatha filed a complaint on July 15, alleging that her daughter Ananya Bhat had gone missing from Dharmasthala in 2003.

On July 19, the Karnataka government formed the Special Investigation Team to probe the allegations on the basis of media reports.