Ex parte gag order unacceptable: Justice Chandru on Dharmasthala

Name: Ex parte gag order unacceptable: Justice Chandru on Dharmasthala
Uploaded: 2025-07-31T12:15:50Z
Description: In relation with the Dharmasthala mass burial case, an ex-parte injunction was invoked ordering the removal of over 8,800 media links. In this interview, Shabbir Ahmed speaks to Justice Chandru, on why these orders, granted without hearing the other side, must be challenged.

In relation with the Dharmasthala mass burial case, an ex-parte injunction was invoked ordering the removal of over 8,800 media links. In this interview, Shabbir Ahmed speaks to Justice Chandru, on why these orders, granted without hearing the other side, must be challenged.

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Ex-parte injunctions — stay orders granted without hearing the other side — are becoming increasingly common in Bengaluru courts. Often granted hastily, these one-sided gag orders have raised concerns about judicial overreach. TNM had earlier reported after looking into court records over the past decade found over 600 suits filed against media houses in Bengaluru. In this backdrop, in a recent sweeping move, a local court invoked a John Doe order in the Dharmasthala burial case, directing the takedown of thousands of media and social media links.

The order came after Harshendra Kumar D, brother of Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade, obtained an ex-parte injunction seeking the removal or de-indexing of 8,842 links reporting on a sanitation worker’s allegations of mass burials in Dharmasthala. The links included news reports, YouTube videos, tweets, Facebook posts, and Reddit threads. The court also restrained the publication or transmission of any defamatory content about Harshendra, his family, associated institutions, and the Sri Manjunathaswamy temple across all media platforms until the next hearing. TNM’s Senior News Editor Shabbir Ahmed spoke to retired Madras High Court judge Justice K Chandru about the implications of this growing legal trend.