Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has slapped a penalty of Rs 5,000 on a prominent legal firm for revealing the name of a rape victim in its petition.
The fine has been imposed by a division bench comprising Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj K. Chavan on the Mumbai-based law firm, Hulyalkar & Associates with branches in Pune.
“Despite Sec. 228A of the Indian Penal Code and despite repeatedly telling the advocates that it is an offence to disclose the name of the prosecutrix which is punishable with two years, the name of the prosecutrix is disclosed in the petition. Hence, the law firm, who drafted the petition, to deposit costs of Rs 5,000 with the Kirtikar Law Library within two weeks from today,” the court said in its ruling on December 22.
The order came after the petitioner (rape victim)’s lawyer Zaid Anwar Qureshi, instructed by Hulyalkar & Associates, sought the court’s permission to mask the petitioner’s name in the petition.
The court allowed him to amend the petition and mask the victim’s name wherever it was mentioned including in the cause title, to be carried out that day.
After the relevant amendments were carried out in the petition, the matter was posted for further hearing on February 8, 2023, the two Justices said.
They also directed the petitioner to serve the amended petition copy to all the other parties concerned with the case.
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