New Delhi, Feb 5 : : The Delhi High Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on a petition seeking directions for registration of an FIR against media houses and social media organisations for allegedly disclosing the identity of the Hathras victim.
A bench of Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh granted time till March 19 to Facebook, Twitter and various media organisations to file their replies on the petition seeking direction to the Delhi Police to register a case against them.
The 19-year-old victim in the Hathras case had died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was allegedly raped by four men from her village on September 14 last year. She was cremated in the middle of the night in her village.
The petition stated that following the unfortunate event, various media houses and social media giants allegedly published information relating to the victim that disclosed her identity.
“Take appropriate action so that all respondents take down or withdraw any material, news article, social media post or any such information published by them with reference to the details of the identity of the victim in a particular case or similar cases,” the petitioner stated.
Besides legal action, the petitioner also sought a direction to the police to organise legal awareness camps, literacy camps, lectures, interactive workshops, newspaper advertisements, hoardings to make people aware about the provisions under the law.
Petitioner Manan Narula alluded to the inaction by Delhi Police against those committing the offence under Section 228A IPC, which makes disclosure of identity of a rape victim a criminal offence.
Section 228A prohibits printing or publishing the name or any matter which may reveal the identities of a rape accused and survivor and prescribes punishment of imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and fine for revealing the identities.
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