The Press Council of India asked the Supreme Court to frame separate guidelines for the media as the media—both print and electronic have been playing an important role in shaping democracy.  The council opined that instead of following few statutory regulations, it would be better if separate guidelines are issues to both print and electronic media to follow while reporting court proceedings. 

Meanwhile, the senior counsel, PP Rao has made his arguments before a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia.  He pointed out that while print media is within the purview of Press Council Act, the electronic media is not. Therefore, he requested the Court to frame guidelines for both.

On the other hand, The Hindu newspaper advocate Anil Dewas has argued that in order to safeguard Article 21 of Fundamental Rights, Art 19 that guarantees freedom of speech and expression should not be compromised on, he said.  He has also said that the media will not be having written documents of arguments pertaining to the case and asked that media would have a chance to write unbiased, fair and clear news if appropriate documents are handed over to them.  Meanwhile the apex court questioned whether Article 19 would really be affected if the court gives guidelines to safeguard rights under Article 21.(Phani)