News about Covid-19 deaths not negative, says Delhi high court, dismisses plea
Whenever news about death is published, it cannot be said that it is negative news, the high court said.
Dismissing a plea seeking direction to restrain news channels from spreading negativity, the Delhi high court on Monday said informing the public about the numbers of deaths due to Covid-19 is not negative news. A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet said that the petition is nothing that but a 'Publicity Interest Litigation' and also warned the petitioner of imposing a cost on him. The court said that no violation of law is pointed out in the petition and as long as the news is correct, there can be no restriction.
“Whenever news about death is published, it cannot be said that it is negative news. It is a wrong notion in the mind of the petitioner,” the court said while dismissing the plea.
The petition, brought by Lalit Valecha, said ever since the onset of the second wave of Covid-19 in the first week of April 2021, which undoubtedly has already assumed alarming and critical dimensions, various television channels by way of news articles and various other programmes have also been airing very negative images/visuals/stories in the most irresponsible manner.
