The Kerala High Court asked the media on Thursday to ‘adopt a code of responsible journalistic conduct’ when reporting court cases because ‘unjustified comments and remarks’, often based on oral remarks made by a judge during a hearing, could harm a litigant’s dignity and reputation.

The suggestion came from a bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Mohammed Nias C P in light of the media attention the litigation received regarding the appointment of Priya Varghese, wife of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s private secretary, to the post of Malayalam associate professor at Kannur University.

The bench said that ‘frighteningly frequent’ are the occasions when an impugned decision in academic matters attracts media attention for some reason or the other.

In such cases, the court must deal with the added distraction of constant newspaper/channel discussions and overwhelming social media posts, it observed, PTI reported from Kochi.

“It is for this reason that courts have time and again exhorted the print and electronic media to exercise restraint by deferring discussions on matters pending before the court so that the rule of law can be better served by avoiding an obstruction of the course of justice,” the bench wrote.

It stated that the media must be mindful of the harm done to a litigant’s dignity and reputation by unjustified comments and remarks, which are frequently based on oral remarks made by a judge during the hearing.

The bench stated that even the Chief Justice of India had recently stated that not everything said by a judge during interactions with lawyers in court should be interpreted as revealing the judge’s views on the merits of the case.

The bench further said that the right to privacy of an individual also includes the right to protection of one’s reputation from arbitrary State action, as well as the actions of other private citizens, including the press or media.

“We trust, therefore, that the media will take note of these observations and adopt a code of responsible journalistic conduct that will inform news reporting in the days to come,” it said.

The high court allowed Varghese’s appeal against a single judge order of November last year that said she lacked the relevant period of actual teaching experience as stipulated under the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations of 2018 for the post.

The bench set aside the single judge’s decision and held she had the relevant experience for the post and that her candidature for that position be considered accordingly.