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Context: The Supreme Court has expressed dissatisfaction with so-called "sealed cover jurisprudence" and has developed a process for "public interest immunity claims" as a less restrictive option for handling claims containing state secrets.

Details

Background

• The Kerala High Court's decision upholding the order from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry decision to block MediaOne, a Malayalam news channel, from airing its programming was overturned by the Supreme Court.
  • The High Court's ruling was based on information that the Home Ministry had only disclosed to it in a "sealed cover."
• The Supreme Court has frequently expressed dissatisfaction with so-called "sealed cover jurisprudence" and has developed a process for "public interest immunity claims" as a less severe option for handling state secret cases.

Public interest immunity claim

• The Supreme Court ruled that the following criteria must be used to determine whether a claim concerning issues of national security is valid:
  • Whether there is sufficient evidence to conclude that information secrecy serves the interests of national security.
  • Whether a reasonable person would make the same conclusion from the evidence.
• The court suggested that secret elements of the document be censored and a summary of the document's contents be supplied to fairly exclude materials following a successful public interest immunity claim.

Must Read Articles:

Independence of Press in India: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/independence-of-the-press-in-india

Sealed Cover Jurisprudence: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/sealed-cover-jurisprudence-2

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-law/what-is-the-scs-public-interest-immunity-claim-procedure/

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