The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain the twin prayers of Trinamul MP Abhishek Banerjee — to restrain media reportage on the Enforcement Directorate’s probe into the teacher and civic employees recruitment controversy and a direction to Calcutta High Court to stop making “unwanted observations”.

An apex court bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti asked Abhishek to approach a division bench of Calcutta High Court for appropriate remedy if he is aggrieved by the orders and observations of the single judge and the media coverage of the case.

While agreeing with senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan that courts should not make stray observations, Justice Khanna said the ED had to strictly act in accordance with the law and within the four corners of the orders passed.

The top court passed the directions while dealing with an application moved by Abhishek pointing to the alleged adverse remarks made during the course of the hearing in the alleged TET 2014 scam.

Sankaranarayanan also wanted the apex court to restrain the media from reporting the matter, which was turned down by the bench.

The senior counsel said Abhishek’s “reputation is being torn to shreds” due to the media coverage, which is being exploited by the Opposition parties on social media.

He cited a five-judge constitution bench directions in the Sahara Vs Sebi case wherein the apex court had passed certain guidelines on media coverage of legal matters.
The constitution bench had mainly left the question of regulating media coverage in a particular case to the presiding judge.

Justice Khanna said the law on media coverage was clear in terms of the 2012 judgment, hence the court need not pass any order.

The bench said it was the duty of all stakeholders, including the media, to strictly follow the judgments, but refused to pass any specific directions to restrain the media from reporting.

The bench said Abhishek was free to challenge any order passed by the single judge before the division bench and also said the ED should only follow the letter of the law.