The Supreme Court Registrar (Editorial) issued a circular dated 07.09.2015 wherein the norms of the accreditation of the Legal Correspondents of the Supreme Court were modified/revised as per the minutes of the meeting dated 30.8.2015 of the Accreditation committee which were approved on 19.08.2015.
The application of accreditation of any journalist/Legal Correspondent would be considered by the Accreditation Committee as per the revised circular.
The accreditation to the journalists has been divided into Regular accreditation and temporary accreditation. For a regular accreditation of a working journalist/correspondent, such person must be a law graduate and must be holding a law degree which is recognized by the Bar Council of India under the Advocates Act, 1961. The applicant journalist/Legal Correspondent must have either a five years continuous experience with a daily newspaper and/or a national or international news agency prior to the application of accreditation, of which at least 3 and a half years reporting should be of the Supreme Court or a High Court, or, he should have at least 5 years of experience of continuous reporting with an electronic media organization of which at least 2 years of experience should be of reporting the Supreme Court or the High Court.
For obtaining a temporary accreditation, most of the conditions are same. The correspondent should be having a law degree recognized by the Bar Council of India. The experience of the correspondent i.e. the continuous reporting time period of a temporary accreditation is 3 and a half years as compared to the Regular accreditation under which continuous 5 years of reporting is required.
The accredited correspondent shall receive an Identification/proximity card for entry to the Supreme Court.
The circular also has the conditions that the journalist / legal correspondent has to observe after receiving the accreditation. The circular states that, “An accredited correspondent, regular or temporary shall while in court precincts be in formal dress, in a manner befitting the décor of the court and displaying prominently his accreditation card.” Also stated that, “an accredited correspondent, regular or temporary, shall make a serious endeavor of reporting a faithful account without any distortions and embellishments.” The circular also mentions that the accredited correspondent shall maintain the decorum of the court and refrain from doing such activities that may disturb the proceedings of the court and such a correspondent should also confine himself to the area prescribed.
It is noteworthy that a few days back, it was reported in the media that Justice Ranjan Gogoi had directed the legal correspondents to not to enter the well of the courtroom i.e. the area between the arguing counsel and the elevated dais of the sitting judges in the courtroom of the Supreme Court. Justice Gogoi even stated that the reporters should remain at an arm’s length at their designated space in the court rooms. He also observed that the decision (aforesaid circular) of the accreditation committee has not reached the journalists and they should be at their place. At that time, Justice N.V. Ramana had observed that he objected to the to and fro reporting of the arguments between the judges and the lawyers. The bench later observed that the journalists are most welcome as long as their report is accurate.
The revised norms of accreditation can be seen online here.
