It was perhaps one of the most awaited judgments in recent times, which explains why most news-wallahs rushed to break the story. As it happened in this case, many rushed to break the wrong one — that the Supreme Court of India had upheld triple talaq — mistaking Chief Justice of India Justice JS Khehar’s judgment as that of the SC Bench’s.
Support Independent Media
The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.
ContributeThe Bench comprised five judges of which Justices Khehar and S Abdul Nazeer were in favour of the government coming up with a law in this regard and Justices Kurian Joseph, R F Nariman and U U Lalit, who held that the practice of instantaneous talaq, or talaq-e-biddat, should be set aside.
The initial ‘tweet breaks’ from various media handles and news flashes erroneous attributed Justice Khehar’s judgment to that of the SC Bench. He was the first to read it by virtue of seniority.
The confusion this created obviously led to a lot of frustration among tweeples — many of them journalists as well — on the state of court reporting in Indian journalism.
However, after things were a little more clear, it was time to gloat.
Times Now even managed to ‘access’ a public document.
Meanwhile, CNN News18’s Bhupendra Chaubey praised the real hero in all of this — not the women petitioners or the SC judges, of course.
We can only wait to see the primetime debate tonight to see news channels claim ‘impact’ for what is indeed a landmark judgment.
Power NL-TNM Election Fund
General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.
Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?