The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked media houses to stop quoting the names of the judges while reporting court matters and judgments. As per reports, the directive has been issued in written communication by the Registrar General, High Court. Incidentally, the directive urged media to do so especially in ‘sensitive cases’.
The communication cites security reasons for advising reporters not to identify judges in their reports. This is during a heightened period of awareness about judicial officers’ safety.
In September, an incident occurred at the Golden Temple in Amritsar where a person used the weapon of a personal security officer of a High Court judge to commit suicide. The court took Suo motu cognizance of the matter and enhanced the security of the judge with changes in the security detail.
The new directive does not apparently tie itself directly to this particular incident; however, the trend for the judiciary reflects increased importance to safeguard those judges involved in sensitive and high-profile cases. There had already been security discussions regarding handling of cases, due to which the Division Bench consisting of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal has dealt with these matters of security concerns for long.
In recent past, there have been cases where Judges received threats, suspected to be coming from Islamist forces, for passing orders in matters concerning Places of Worship Act. One of the prominement case involved Justice Ravi Kumar Diwakar. He stated that he started receiving threats soon after he had ordered a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi complex.
For those unversed, Additional sessions judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar had ordered a videographic survey of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi complex in 2022. Later, he lodged a Police complaint stating that he has been receiving “malicious calls” and “death threats from international numbers”. In his letter to the Bareilly SP, Justice Diwakar said that he received a call from an international number on April 15 and received a death threat. Another similar call was received days later.