HC tells police to file status report on plea for FIR against Rahul for post disclosing rape victim’s identity

New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Delhi Police to file a status report within 10 days in a plea seeking FIR registration against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly revealing the identity of a nine-year-old girl who was raped and killed.

Before a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna, the counsel appearing for the petitioner and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) told the court that no action has been taken yet by the police, and that it has been over two years since the incident took place.

The NCPCR has earlier, through an affidavit, told the High Court that X’s decision to not remove Gandhi's post, wherein he had allegedly revealed the identity of a minor Dalit girl, who was raped and murdered in 2021, contributes to disclosing the victim's identity.

The NCPCR’s lawyer said that the Delhi Police must register a First Information Report (FIR) in the case. Appearing for Gandhi, on the other hand, Advocate Tarannum Cheema said that the court has not issued a formal notice to him. In response, the court said that it will first examine the status report of the Delhi Police and then decide what needs to be done, and listed the matter for hearing next on December 21.

A nine-year-old minor girl had died under suspicious circumstances on August 1, 2021, with her parents alleging that she was raped, murdered and cremated by a crematorium's priest in southwest Delhi's Old Nangal village.

A social activist Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar had moved a plea in the High Court in 2021, alleging that Gandhi had violated the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012, which prohibits the identification of minors who have been sexually assaulted.

The NCPCR in its affidavit has said that though X (then Twitter) has withheld the post in India on receiving a notice sent by it, the social media platform failed to remove the tweet altogether which is still available for the public to be seen outside India.

It has said that in order to fully give effect to its obligations, X ought to have removed the impugned tweet from its platform and the same should not be hidden only in the "Indian territory".

"The object is to conceal the identity of the minor girl child and hence merely hiding the post in question from Indian domain shall not suffice the purpose of hiding the identity of the victim. True meaning and effect has to be given in letter and spirit to Right to Privacy and Right to dignity as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution," the affidavit reads.

It further says that it is pertinent to mention here that the said post can still be accessed and is still available in public domain throughout the world. Consequently, the inaction of X contributes to disclosure of the identity of the victim, which is in violation of the country's laws.

The NCPCR had earlier told the court that it wants to support and join the petitioner in the matter. It had told the court that the offence of making such a disclosure still exists, despite X's claim that it had removed Gandhi's post.

Sajan Poovayya, a senior lawyer representing X, had argued that "nothing survived" in the petition because the contested post has been "geo-blocked" and is currently not accessible in India.

He had added that Gandhi's account was suspended by the social media platform but was later restored. Nonetheless, the petitioner and the NCPCR's counsel argued that the offence still exists.