MADAN B. LOKUR, J. :-

The question for our consideration is whether Mr. R. K. Anand and Mr. I. U. Khan, Senior Advocates and Mr. Sri Bhagwan Sharma, Advocate have committed criminal contempt of Court or not. We have found Mr. Anand and Mr. Khan guilty of criminal contempt of Court for reasons recorded in the judgment. Neither of them had tendered any apology or demonstrated contrition or repentance for their actions. Accordingly, towards the end of the judgment, we have pronounced the punishment awarded to them. We have found Mr. Sri Bhagwan Sharma not guilty of criminal contempt of Court.

Background facts :

2. On 30th May, 2007 a TV news channel 'NDTV' carried a report relating to a 'sting' operation. The report concerned itself with the role of a defence lawyer and the Special Public Prosecutor in the ongoing Sessions trial in what is commonly called the 'BMW case'.

3. On 31st May, 2007 a Division Bench of this Court, on its own motion, registered a writ petition being WP (Crl.) No. 796 of 2007 since it was of the opinion that if the reported contents were true, they raise serious issues concerning criminal justice administration. Under these circumstances, the Division Bench felt it expedient and in the interest of justice to ascertain the full facts from NDTV.

4. The Division Bench issued a direction to the Registrar General to collect all materials that may be available in respect of the telecast and also directed NDTV to preserve the original material including the CD/video pertaining to the sting operation.

5. It appears that simultaneously the learned Additional Sessions Judge before whom the BMW case was pending also instituted an inquiry into the contents of the report and on 1st June, 2007 the Managing Editor of NDTV produced before him three chips and five CDs containing the material in the three chips (which had the original unedited recording). However, since this Court was seized of the matter, the learned Additional Sessions Judge did not proceed further with the inquiry.

6. In compliance with the order dated 31st May, 2007 NDTV produced before the Registrar (General/Administration) of this Court, on 2nd June, 2007 six CDs. One of the CDs was said to be edited, while the remaining five were said to be unedited. The statement of Ms. Poonam Agarwal a reporter of NDTV was recorded to this effect and the CDs were placed in a sealed cover. Ms. Agarwal also stated that 'The NDTV news channel does not have any other material in connection with the sting operation in question'. She undertook to preserve the original chips.

7. Subsequently, on 6th June, 2007 Ms. Agarwal submitted the transcripts of the six CDs. She also stated that the six CDs were 'prepared from four spy camera chips which were recorded on different occasions'

8. On 23rd July, 2007 Ms. Agarwal filed an affidavit (on the direction of the Court) concerning the sting or undercover operation from the stage it was conceived, attendant circumstances, details of recording, time and place etc. The affidavit broadly states that on 20th April, 2007 NDTV had telecast a half-hour special on the BMW case and thereafter on 22nd April, 2007 one Mr. Sunil Laxman Kulkarni contacted her and told her that he had seen the half-hour programme and was impressed by it. He told her that he had some information relevant to the case and would like to meet her. She met Mr. Kulkarni the same day and again on the 23rd April, 2007 when he told her that there was a strong nexus between the prosecution and the defence in the BMW case and that he wanted to do a sting operation to make the nexus public.

9. At this stage, it may be broadly mentioned that Mr. Kulkarni claims to have witnessed an incident that occurred in the early morning of 10th January, 1999 when a BMW car allegedly driven by one Mr. Sanjeev Nanda in a drunken State caused the death of six persons. The police registered a case under Section 304 read with Sections 308 and 34 of the IPC and commenced their investigations