The News Minute has approached the Karnataka High Court challenging two separate gag orders that have been used to curb its reportage on the Dharmasthala mass burial case. The court is likely to hear the matter next week.

The Dharmasthala case came to light after a police complaint by a former sanitation worker at the Dharmasthala Manjunathaswamy Temple. The worker alleged he was made to bury numerous bodies, including those of women, over nearly two decades, on orders from his supervisors. The News Minute is among the few media outlets that have consistently covered the case.

In one petition, The News Minute is challenging a gag order passed in March by a civil court in Bengaluru. That order was issued in a case filed by employees of the Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project, as per Bar and Bench.

The News Minute says it wasn’t even a party to that case, but still received notices from the plaintiffs asking it to remove articles and a tweet, referring to the ‘John Doe’ provision in the court order. It’s a legal term that allows courts to issue orders against unknown people.

Even though the articles were not defamatory, The News Minute says it took them down temporarily to avoid getting into legal trouble. But later, the same court order was used again to demand the removal of an unrelated video.

This time, The News Minute refused – arguing that the video wasn’t even mentioned in the original court order. The video, The News Minute said, only reported verified facts, including the filing of an FIR and statements made by Karnataka’s Home Minister.

In a second petition, The News Minute is reportedly challenging another gag order passed on July 18 in a separate defamation case. The outfit was named among the defendants but The News Minute says the order was passed without informing or hearing it, which goes against rules that require courts to give notice before such orders are passed. The outfit argues that the order makes no distinction between false, defamatory content and factual, public-interest reporting.

The News Minute said it had never accused any specific person from the temple administration of wrongdoing. Yet it was being targeted with baseless defamation claims and sweeping take-down demands, including efforts to stop any future coverage.

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