Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd. vs. Securities and Exchange Board of India: A Case Study

Abstract

The judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, pronounced recently on 11th September, 2012 in the case of Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd. & Ors. v. Securities & Exchange Board of India & Anr. centered on finding an acceptable constitutional balance between free press and administration of justice, sparked off a debate on whether the concept of prior restraint on media reporting of judicial proceedings is valid under the constitutional tenets. The Constitutional Bench headed by the Chief Justice, while declining to lay down broad guidelines for the media, did provide certain specific directions with respect to the reporting of matters in the mass media.The most pertinent aspect of the judgment relates to the doctrine of postponement whereby the concerned High Court or the Supreme Court can direct that the publication of judicial proceedings be delayed for a certain period of time. The 56-page long judgment, penned by the Chief Justice of India, is built on the presumption that under the Indian Constitution, probably, no values are absolute and that it also follows that in appropriate case one right [say freedom of expression] may have to yield to the other right like the right to a fair trial. Drawing from the above statement, the Court went on to add that even the concept of ‘open justice’ is not absolute and hence Courts may place a restriction on the same in the interest of administration of justice.