The Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed a petition while observing the menace of fake, fabricated, and orchestrated news is causing harm to society. The Division Bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Abdul Moin passed this order while hearing a PIL filed by Vishnu Kumar Srivastava.
The prayers made in the writ petition were to the effect that appropriate direction be issued to the Uttar Pradesh government for framing guidelines to regulate various news media so that the tendency to spread fake, fabricated and orchestrated news, may be curbed.
The Court found that the prayers made in the petition primarily lie in the realm of policy and the petitioner has thus sought a direction to the State to frame/come out with a policy to check such disturbing trends in media.
The Court said that while we do not intend in any manner to minimize the need of curbing such menace which is causing more harm to the society, we are also conscious of the fact that the matter exclusively lies in the policy-making arena, which in our considered opinion is not the preserve of the Court. At this juncture, we have been informed that the broader issue raised in the petition is already engaging the attention of the Supreme Court in writ petition Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind & another vs. Union of India and another.
Accordingly having regard to the nature of prayers made in this petition and also considering the fact that Supreme Court is already seized of such matter, we are not inclined to entertain the writ Petition, the Court observed while dismissing it.