NEW DELHI/ BENGALURU, 23 JULY

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear a petition challenging a sweeping gag order that restrained media houses from reporting on matters related to the brother of Dharamadhikari D Veerendra Heggade of Dharamsthala in Karnataka.

The gag order pertained to reports on alleged murders and rapes of women in Dharmasthala after a sanitation worker claimed that they buried “hundreds of bodies”.

The plea, filed against an ex parte interim order of a local court, questioned the legality of the directive, which directed as many as 390 media houses to remove nearly 9,000 links and stories related to the Dharamsthala burial case.

A bench comprising Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi asked the petitioner why the High Court had not been approached.

“You go to the high court first,” the CJI said.

The gag order was reportedly passed in a defamation suit filed by Harshendra Kumar, Secretary of Sri Manjunathaswamy Temple institutions, who highlighted the spread of allegedly false and defamatory content online, despite there being no specific allegations against him or the temple authorities in any FIR.

The plea in the apex court was filed by YouTube channel Third Eye against a City court order restraining the publication of any defamatory content against Harshendra Kumar D, brother of Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade, in relation to the Dharmasthala temple burial case.