{"id":227647,"date":"2023-02-20T22:10:32","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T16:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=227647"},"modified":"2023-02-21T10:05:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T04:35:15","slug":"on-sealed-cover-jurisprudence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/on-sealed-cover-jurisprudence\/","title":{"rendered":"On sealed cover jurisprudence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on the article <\/span>\u201cOn sealed cover jurisprudence\u201d <\/span><\/b>published in <\/span>\u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/span><\/b>on <\/span>18th February 2023<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/span><\/b>GS2- Judiciary<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevance:<\/span><\/b> Issues related to the transparent process of justice<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

News: <\/span><\/b>The Chief Justice of India firmly refused the \u2018suggestions\u2019 offered by the government in a sealed cover on the formation of a proposed committee to enquire into the Hindenburg report on the Adani Group.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the issues related to the practice of routine handing over of sealed covers by the government?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

It <\/span>erodes public confidence<\/span><\/b> in the <\/span>\u2018open court\u2019 principle of justice administration<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The petitioners are unable to defend themselves. They do not know what they are supposed to defend against.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Passing on materials in a sealed cover to the court compels judges to <\/span>accept the state\u2019s version, <\/span><\/b>that too, in cases in which the government\u2019s narrative is under challenge.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the historical facts related to this practice?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The origins of sealed cover jurisprudence can be traced to<\/span> service or administrative cases. <\/span><\/b>Official service records and promotion assessments of individual personnel were received in a sealed cover in order to avoid harm to the <\/span>reputation of officers.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The court continues to receive <\/span>confidential documents in sexual assault <\/span><\/b>cases to protect the identity of survivors.\u00a0<\/span>However, recently there has been a <\/span>rise in the incidence<\/span><\/b> of the government providing documents in a sealed cover.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sealed cover documents have been received by the apex court in cases such as the Rafale jets\u2019 purchase deal, the Assam National Register of Citizens case, the Ayodhya title dispute, the Gujarat Police \u2018fake\u2019 encounter case, the electoral bonds case, and Bhima Koregaon case. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the rules associated with this practice?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Supreme Court Rules, 2013 provides that the Chief Justice can direct any document to be kept confidential in a sealed cover if publication of the records is \u201cconsidered to be <\/span>not in the interest of the public\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Section 123 of the Evidence Act of 1872<\/span><\/b> provides that the government should give a prior permission to a person who wants to give evidence \u201cderived from unpublished official records relating to any affairs of state\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How the Supreme Court is now witnessing a turnaround?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The SC, in the <\/span>Media One telecast ban case,<\/span><\/b> observed that the government should explain the exceptional circumstances to keep documents secret from the other party. The court has made it clear that sealed covers could be used only in a \u201csmall exception\u201d of cases.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the <\/span>S.P. Velumani case, 2022<\/span><\/b>; the Supreme Court criticised the Madras High Court\u2019s decision to permit a report to remain \u201cshrouded in a sealed cover\u201d when the State had not even claimed any specific privilege. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The court admonished the Bihar government for attempting to give information in a sealed cover in the Muzaffarpur shelter case.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the <\/span>Pegasus case judgement<\/span><\/b>, SC underscored that the government must prove the facts that the information sought would affect national security concerns. The state cannot get a free pass every time the issue of <\/span>\u2018national security\u2019<\/span><\/b> is raised.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read More<\/strong>: The Issue of Sealed Cover Jurisprudence \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cOn sealed cover jurisprudence\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 18th February 2023.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS2- Judiciary\u00a0 Relevance: Issues related to the transparent process of justice\u00a0 News: The Chief Justice of India firmly refused the \u2018suggestions\u2019 offered by the government in a sealed cover on the formation of a… Continue reading On sealed cover jurisprudence<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,11294,10498],"class_list":["post-227647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-sealed-cover-jurisprudence","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700784570,"cached_date":1704871138},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}