Centre to SC: reel-maker or journalist

This note is verified for what the Solicitor General said on the record. A committee or guidelines are developing. The reports were rechecked at 8:50 am IST on 16 October 2026, and the post went up at 11:10 am IST.

The hearing was on 15 October 2026. The bench was Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. It was hearing about 32 petitions. Those petitions cover police excesses, the Special Intensive Revision, and the powers of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court, in the wording The Indian Express carries: "We do not know who is a reel maker, and who is an independent journalist." He also said: "But no lady should be inappropriately dealt with, including female police personnel." Those two sentences are the on-record submission this note treats as verified. The Indian Express is the report that carries both verbatim.

India Today's wording of the first sentence is slightly different: "We don't know who is a reel-maker, who is an independent journalist." News18 carries the reel-maker sentence verbatim and paraphrases the line about women. This note uses The Indian Express sentences as the quotation, and records that the other two reports are not worded identically.

The context of the submission is an allegation. It is alleged that during protests against the SIR and against the Chief Election Commissioner, male police officers harassed women journalists. That is an allegation. It is not a finding. The matter is in court. This note names no alleged victim.

The Chief Justice called it a "very serious" issue. India Today reports that, and that a committee was hinted at. The court is considering a committee. No guidelines have been formally issued. No committee has been formally issued. That part is developing. The Centre is to file an affidavit within a week.

A separate published note covers other orders from the 15 October sitting, the notice to the Election Commission and the direction to preserve footage: SC notice to the EC on the SIR plea. That note and this one are not the same submission.

The question the hearing leaves open, as the caption frames it, is who counts as a journalist at a protest, and who gets protection: an accredited reporter, a freelancer, or a person recording on a phone. The court has not issued a rule on that. The affidavit, and any committee, are still ahead.

The cover uses a Wikimedia Commons photograph of the Supreme Court of India by Subhashish Panigrahi, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The credit is "Photo: Subhashish Panigrahi, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)".

What is verified is the hearing, the bench, the scale of about 32 petitions, and the Solicitor General's two sentences as The Indian Express prints them, with the Chief Justice's "very serious". What is alleged is the harassment of women journalists. What is developing is a committee or guidelines, and the affidavit due within a week.