It is high time strict norms are laid down to regulate method of law reporting. Karnataka High Court.

M/s. JSW Steel Limited vs Mysore Minerals Limited. Writ Petition 15190/2020 decided on 13 January 2021.

Judgment Link: http://judgmenthck.kar.nic.in/judgmentsdsp/bitstream/123456789/359218/1/WP15190-20-13-01-2021.pdf

Note: The kind of law reporting by few agencies in the recent past has reached the level of sensationalism. Headings are crafted in such a way as to receive sharp reactions on the social network. Few judges are targeted for their judgments. In the guise of Articles by legal experts and retired judges, a particular ideology is being propagated. These agencies are sponsored by groups having direct political nexus. The photos accompanying article are sometimes obnoxious. Recently a politician with criminal conviction and another one with charge sheet in criminal cases are shown along with Supreme Court Judges. Law reporting is reduced to the level of TRP gaining television channels. The Karnataka High Court has recently dealt with the related issue regarding flawed reporting as follows in the above named judgment.

“Flawed method of law-reporting and its inherent dangers: It is high time that some  strict norms are laid down  for regulating the mode and method of law reporting; there are several agencies in the country which have their own uncertain and varying ways of reporting the judgments of constitutional courts; the pattern of law report does not match with that of the original judgment on record; the paragraphs in the reported judgments at times do  not  match with the paragraphs in the original; not rarely, even paraphrasing of some parts of original judgments  by  the law reporting agency, is also noticed when rulings are cited by the lawyers; all this puts both Bar and the  Bench  to  some avoidable difficulty in ascertaining the law laid down and its scope; there is a lurking risk of the editorial notes that are interjected in the body of judgments reported, being inadvertently construed as part of the ratio;  this  is not a happy thing to happen; much deliberation in this regard is not needed.“