Social media posts by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi “revealing the identity” of a minor Dalit girl, raped and killed in 2021, was in violation of the law protecting the identity of the victim, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) told the Delhi High Court on Thursday.
The child rights body presented its stand before the bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula in an affidavit filed by it on a petition seeking registration of an FIR against Gandhi for publishing a photograph with the parents of the victim that led to her identification.
“Shri Rahul Gandhi posted a picture of his meeting with the parents of the minor victim girl on his social media accounts thereafter revealing the identity of the minor girl. The tweet/post of Shri Rahul Gandhi is in the violation of provisions of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 which makes it explicitly clear that any information including family details should not be published in any form of media which could lead to the identification of any minor victim,” said the reply affidavit by NCPCR.
The bench was hearing a petition seeking direction to the NCPCR and Commissioner of Police Delhi to take appropriate legal action against the former Congress president for disclosing sensitive information about a rape victim and her family members by publishing a photograph of her parents on his Twitter handle @RahulGandhi.
In October 2022, the NCPCR had submitted that Rahul Gandhi committed an offence by disclosing sensitive information about a rape victim and the Commission would support the petitioner seeking strict action against the Congress leader if notice is issued to it.
The High Court had earlier issued a notice only to Twitter. Thereafter, Twitter in, its response, submitted that the tweet had been removed. Additionally, it was submitted that the parents of the minor Dalit girl had consented to their photo being shared by Rahul Gandhi on the microblogging site.
The plea filed by Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar stated that, by his conduct, Gandhi violated Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and Section 23(2) of the POCSO Act, 2012, both of which mandate that the identity of a minor victim of a crime shall not be disclosed.
The nine-year-old Dalit girl had died under suspicious circumstances on August 1, 2021, with her parents alleging that she was raped, murdered and cremated by a crematorium priest in southwest Delhi’s Old Nangal village.
The petition filed through advocates Gautam Jha, Pankaj Kumar and Shweta Jha submitted that the law is very well-settled in this regard in a catena of judgments, including in the case of Nipun Saxena v Union of India, wherein it was held by the apex court 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 in the media. No picture of such a child or any such particular which can directly or indirectly disclose their identity can be published.
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