The Bombay High Court has lifted the media gag order on the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, Scroll.in reported. On November 29, a special CBI court had issued a restraining order against media reportage on the ongoing trial.

Lifting the gag, Justice Revati Mohite-Dere said the ban on publishing any part of the proceeding was contrary to law. Mohite-Dere was listening to a writ petition filed by a group of nine journalists, including Scroll’s Naresh Fernandes and an Indian Express journalist. A similar petition was filed by the Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists.

The order comes a day after Justice Mohite-Dere questioned the powers of the special CBI court in imposing such an order. “Under which provision does the judge have the power to direct the media not to publish? Can the court, in the absence of power, pass such an order?” The Indian Express quoted the judge as saying.

This was the argument used by advocates Aabad Ponda and Abhinav Chandrachud, who were representing the journalists. Assisted by Varsha Bhogle and Shailendra Singh, the advocates had argued that powers such as “postponement of publication of a proceeding” lay only with the “court of records” – the high courts and the Supreme Courts. Thus, in doing so, the “trial court’s order usurps jurisdiction of the superior courts”, Ponda was quoted as saying.