New Delhi, September 4
The Supreme Court today refused to restrain the media from making public the names of business executives who reportedly visited CBI Director Ranjit Sinha at his residence in New Delhi purportedly to derail the agency probe into the 2G scam. The executives reportedly visited Sinha in an attempt to bail out their companies and the top brass from the case.

“Press has its freedom and we hope it will be responsible in a sensitive matter like this,” a Bench comprising Justices HL Dattu and SA Bobde told Sinha’s senior counsel Vikas Singh who pleaded for a gag order against the media to prevent it from causing “irreparable damage to the reputation” of his client. It clarified that it did not have control over the developments outside the court.

The Bench also refused to pass an order asking the court authorities not to accept documents containing scurrilous allegations against Sinha unless the PIL petitioner, Centre for PIL (CPIL), disclosed as to how it got hold of such information.

“Everybody knows what he should do and should not,” the Bench explained. Nevertheless, it said it would ask the petitioner’s counsel, Prashant Bhushan, about the source of his information on the list of visitors to the CBI Director’s official residence.

Singh said reports on the alleged visits of 2G accused were an attempt to malign the important functionary of the country handling “very, very sensitive cases”. The reports had also violated the sanctity of the court proceedings, he said.

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