Former CVC P.J. Thomas moves SC against media 'smear campaign'

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Aggreived by being referred as 'tainted' and being listed in the category of 'men who shamed India' by the media, former Central Vigilance Commissioner P.J. Thomas has approached the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into alleged distortion in the reporting of his case.

Thomas has also sought laying of guidelines for reporting of court proceedings contending that while reporting his case the media had crossed all limits of the civil society.

The petition filed by his counsel Wills Mathew demanded a CBI inquiry into the distorted reporting and initiation of contempt of court proceedings against those found guilty.

"If this trend is not stopped, it will result in a situtation where only a person acceptable to the media will find a place in important statutory posts and the media can easily throw any honest officer by wrongly maligning him", the petition said.

He claimed there are some vested interests in the media who have been maligning him right since he was nominated as CVC.

"Since the date of his nomination for the post of CVC, P.J. Thomas had been labelled as tainted publicly by the media for reasons best known to them only and with nobody to stop them," the petition said.

"The seriousness of the issue is seen from the fact that if we search www.google.com [2] with the words 'tainted CVC P.J. Thomas' the number of hits is 7,83,000 and the number of people who might have read it and believed that the applicant is tainted is in billions due to sensational reporting of the false and frivolous news by the media," he added.

Citing reasons for filing the petition, Thomas said he is 'constrained to move this application being seriously aggreived by the wrong interpretation of the court proceedings, particularly telecasting of defamatory, cooked-up news, demoralising the applicant in total violation of various fundamental rights'.

Thomas also lamented that the Supreme court's judgement quashing his appointment as CVC mentioned nothing about the good things he has done.

"Unfortunately, in the judgment of this court nothing is mentioned about the good deeds and actions and desirability of the applicant for the post of CVC, resulting in a situtation in which the name of P.J. Thomas is defamed," the petition said.

"After 32 years of service to the nation, I am labeled as tainted, which is painful," Thomas added.

He also said in his petition that the apex court's inaction despite 'distorted' reporting being brought to the court's notice by his counsel resulted in the situtation.