A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking the removal of the deceased woman's photo, name, and identification from various social media platforms in the case of rape and murder of a female doctor at RG Kar Medical Hospital in Kolkata. The petition claims that revealing the deceased doctor's photo and family identity is affecting the family's reputation. Almost all major social media platforms have been made parties to the petition. The Supreme Court will hear this plea on August 20.
This petition in the Supreme Court has been filed by Kinnari Ghosh and Tushar Roy through their lawyer Rishi Kumar Singh Gautam. The Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of India, the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of West Bengal, Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and msn.com have also been made parties. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Mishra will hear the petition.
Earlier, the Calcutta High Court on Friday appealed to the victim's acquaintances and media not to circulate her photos and other identification details. A lawyer representing a public interest litigation in the Calcutta High Court had requested the bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya to ensure that the victim's identity is not revealed in any media, including social media. Taking cognizance of the lawyer's appeal, the Calcutta High Court stated, 'Since the law prohibits revealing the identity of such victims, we request everyone who knows the victim not to circulate the victim's photos along with her name and other identification details.'
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The Calcutta High Court further stated, 'We also request the members of print and press media to ensure that in any published report, the identity or photos of such victims are not published.' During the previous hearing, lawyer Firoz Edulji, representing one of the petitioners, had informed the court that the post-mortem (legal investigation) report of the victim had been made public, thus revealing her name. The lawyer had sought immediate intervention from the court to ensure that the victim's name and photos are removed from all social media platforms.
