Court of Protection case can be reported as it happens for the first time, newspaper reports

It is thought it is the first time a Court of Protection case will be able to be reported during the event of a hearing, according to the Guardian.

The Court of Protection deals with cases where people lack the capacity to make decisions about themselves. The cases are usually heard in private but following a lobby from media groups last year judges can decide to open the court, with reporting restrictions, for journalists in cases deemed to be in the public interest. Those restrictions often limit the reporting to key facts upon final judgment in the cases.

This specific case involves a dispute between the son of a 92 year old man and a local authority, according to a report by the Guardian. The son believes his father is being kept in a care home against his will and is being unlawfully denied contact with him, the report said.

Mr Justice Ryder said that the issues could be reported because the dispute is "a paradigm case in an area which happens to be at the forefront of public awareness, [and is] therefore not just of general public interest but of specific public interest," according to the Guardian's report.

Journalists will also have "fairly generous access to material" used as evidence in the case and can report on the arguments over circumstances where hospital patients and care home residents should have their freedoms restricted, it said.

In 2009 new measures called Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards were introduced to give hospital patients and care home residents more rights against the restriction of their freedom. Under provisions of the Mental Capacity Act care providers can restrict adults' right to freedom if they believe it is in the best interests of the individual's health and provided they are authorised to do so by an NHS trust or local authority.

An individual's right to freedom is a right guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights subject to some clauses mainly to do with arrest and detention for criminal or suspected criminal behaviour.

The local authority believes the pensioner, referred to by the Court as SJ, lacks the mental capacity to make decisions about where he should live, is happy to remain at the care home and that only says otherwise after being manipulated by his son, DJ, the Guardian report said.

The authority has applied for a court order that would force SJ to remain at the care home and would contain the power to use "reasonable and proportionate physical contact if necessary" to return him to the home if he leaves or is removed, the report said.

DJ believes SJ wants to return home and that he is capable of making his own decisions, a view backed by an independent consultant psychiatrist, according to the Guardian.

The local authority argues that there are "straightforward health and welfare matters" and "safeguarding issues" behind its decision to prevent the pensioner returning home, according to the Guardian. It says bruising on SJ's body was caused by abuse by his son and that SJ had told staff DJ had hurt him – allegations that DJ "vigorously denied", the report said.