Delhi High Court upholds Press Council of India's decision to exclude Editors Guild of India from its fold

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea filed by the Editors Guild of India challenging its exclusion from the list of “associations of persons” notified by the Press Council of India (PCI) for the constitution of the 15th Press Council [Editors Guild of India v. Press Council of India & Ors].

A Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela held that the Editors Guild’s petition suffered from inordinate delay and lacked merit.

“For the reasons aforesaid, we do not find any good ground to interfere in the report/recommendation of the Scrutiny Committee dated 10.09.2024, as also the notification dated 28.10.2024 issued by the Council so far as the same relate to the petitioner,” the Court said. 

The PCI includes members nominated from various "associations of persons," primarily representing working journalists, newspaper editors and owners/managers of news agencies, alongside members from academia, law and parliament. 

The Editors Guild of India was formed in 1978. Its Executive Committee consists of journalists such as Shekhar Gupta, Rajdeep Sardesai, TN Ninan, Raj Chengappa, Ashutosh and others. 

In its writ petition, the Editors Guild had challenged the PCI’s decision to reject its claim for recognition under Section 5(3)(a) of the Press Council Act, 1978, which governs the nomination of working journalists to the Council. 

The Scrutiny Committee had rejected the Guild’s application on multiple grounds, including failure to submit notarised copies of documents, absence of proof that its business had been conducted continuously for six years, non-compliance with the prescribed format for certification by the competent authority and failure to file a declaration stating that its claim was free from disputes or litigation.

The Editors Guild argued that these deficiencies were merely technical and that they had had fulfilled the requirement of the rules and the notice in essence and substance. 

However, the Court rejected the argument and upheld the PCI’s decision. 

Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao with Advocates Archit Krishna and Meherunnisa Anand Jaitley appeared for the Editors Guild of India. 

PCI was represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vikramjit Banerjee as well as Advocates T Singhdev, Bhanu Gulati, Yamini Singh, Abhijit Chakravarty, Anum Hussain, R Kaur, Akansha, S Kumar, T Srivastava, P Rawat and Vedant Sood. 

[Read Judgment]