Overview
- A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice on IE Online’s challenge to a Delhi High Court order that upheld removal and de-indexing of reports on banker Nitin Bhatnagar after his discharge.
- The Supreme Court directed that the December 18 High Court ruling will not operate as precedent, recorded that Indian Express has complied by taking down the content, and declined to stay the pending civil proceedings.
- Notices were sent to Bhatnagar and several media organizations, including ANI, HT Media, Times Internet, and NDTV, with responses due by March 16.
- The bench warned that court-ordered removals could harm democracy, underscoring the need to balance Article 19 press freedom with Article 21 privacy and referencing its caution against courts acting as editors.
- Senior advocate Arvind Datar argued that privacy does not permit erasing history under Puttaswamy, highlighted divergent High Court rulings and similar suits against Indian Express, and Indian Kanoon flagged risks of scrubbing judicial records.