Senior counsel Fali Nariman told the constitution bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice D.K. Jain, Justice S.S. Nijjar, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice J.S. Khehar that the court could at best go for normative guidelines instead of mandatory guidelines as these would infringe upon the essential freedom of press.

The court was told that framing of guidelines would not only amount to judicial over-reach but also open the flood gates and add to problems instead of easing them.