The Supreme Court of India has gone ahead and expressed its disillusionment with the Centre in association with the Tablighi Jamaat incident.
The Supreme Court has said that the actions taken by the Centre were “brazen” and “evasive” especially statements that were issued in the form of an affidavit against allegedly motivated reporting by the media. The Supreme Court’s disillusionment with the Centre targets the affidavit filed by the Centre against what it called a targeted reporting of the Tablighi Jamaat incident.
The Supreme Court bench was being headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, and he was hearing a series of petitions filed by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and other organisations. These petitions were all seeking justice because they alleged that several media groups had been trying to give a communal colour to the incident. It is in this context that the apex court also asked whether appropriate steps were being taken by the Centre to control and contain motivated reporting in the media. The bench also noted that the freedom of speech and expression was the most abused right in our times. The petitions will again be taken up in the court after two weeks.
The Centre on the other hand said that the news that was reported regarding the Tablighi Jamaat congregation or the spread of the coronavirus in it was based on actual facts and thus there was no basis of censoring it. It also said that the bodies that had filed the petitions were trying to malign the media based on false allegations.
