Dalit girl rape: Delhi HC asks child rights body to respond to plea against Rahul Gandhi
In October 2021, the High Court had issued notice to Twitter stating that it was making it “explicitly clear” that no notice was being issued to Gandhi and others.
The HC issued notice to the child rights body and listed the matter for hearing on July 27. (PTI) The Delhi High Court Friday sought National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) stand in a plea seeking registration of FIR against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for tweeting a photograph of the parents of the nine-year-old Dalit girl who was allegedly raped and killed at a crematorium in Southwest Delhi in August 2021.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Datta was at the outset informed by NCPCR counsel Swarupama Chaturvedi that a formal notice had not been issued to the body and said that she sought to file a response to the plea.
The HC issued notice to the child rights body and listed the matter for hearing on July 27. Last October, the body had told the HC that even though the tweet has been removed, the “offence still survives”.
Twitter earlier told the court that Gandhi’s account was temporarily suspended because of the tweet but was later restored. The platform had submitted previously that the tweet had been geo-blocked in India. The petitioner, Makarand Suresh, Mhadlekar, a social activist, has argued that Gandhi violated Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and Section 23(2) of the POCSO Act, “both of which mandate that the identity of a child victim of a crime shall not be disclosed”. The petitioner has also sought the HC to direct the NCPCR to take appropriate legal action against Gandhi.
“The law in this regard is very well-settled in a catena of judgments, including in the case of Nipun Saxena v Union of India wherein it was held by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, that the name, address, school or other particulars which may lead to the identification of the child in conflict with law/victim cannot be disclosed to the media. No picture of such a child, or any such particular which can directly or indirectly disclose her identity, can be published. A child who is not in conflict with the law but is a victim of an offence especially a sexual offence needs this protection even more,” contended the plea.
In October 2021, the High Court had issued notice to Twitter stating that it was making it “explicitly clear” that no notice was being issued to Gandhi and others.
The girl had gone to get water from a cooler at a crematorium near her house, The Indian Express had reported. Police said that around 30 minutes later, the priest, Radhey Shyam, and two-three other people known to the girl’s mother called her and showed her the girl’s body, claiming that was electrocuted while getting water. The girl’s parents claim Shyam coerced them to cremate her body, and the mother also alleged that she suspects her daughter was raped before being killed, the Indian Express had reported.
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