The Supreme Court of India has agreed to hear a plea by the Editors Guild of India (EGI) seeking protection for four of its members from coercive action in connection with two FIRs lodged against them in Manipur, reports said on Wednesday.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud listed the case for a detailed hearing on September 11 (Monday). The bench also directed the Manipur Police not to take any coercive action against them in the interregnum.
The four members of the EGI include the president and three senior journalists.
“We will take it up after admission (matters) are over," the CJI told senior advocate Shyam Divan, who mentioned the matter for the Guild.
Divan said that two FIRs have been lodged against the Guild members in Manipur and they are seeking protection from coercive action in these cases.
On Monday, the Manipur Government had filed a case against a few members of the fact-finding team of the Editors Guild of India who had visited the state to publish a report of the ongoing crisis. According to information, an FIR has been filed over the allegations that the report submitted by the team was ‘false, fabricated and sponsored’.
In response to this, the EGI issued a statement on Tuesday stating that they were disturbed by the FIRs registered by the Manipur Police against the President of the Guild as well as the members of the fact-finding team that had visited Manipur to study and document media's coverage of ethnic clashes in the state. They also commented ‘shocked’ by the intimidatory remarks made by the state Chief Minister N. Biren Singh.
