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SC bars disclosure of identity of rape victims
Why is it in the news ?
- The Supreme Court directed that names and identities of victims of rape and sexual assault should not be disclosed or revealed even in remote manner.
- A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur directed the print and electronic media not to reveal identity of victims of rape and sexual assault “even in a remote manner”.
More in the news
- The police and forensic authorities have been barred from disclosing the identity of a rape victim after parental nod.
- Putting first information reports (FIRs) on rape and those under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, in public domain also stands prohibited.
- Protection to the identity of rape victims would also extend to social media posts on which any sort of identity disclosure has been barred.
- The court set aside the argument that the identity of a dead victim of sexual crime should be revealed as it would become a “symbol of protest or treated as an iconic figure”.
- The top court also highlighted how rape victims were prejudiced and treated worse than their perpetrators and that society’s attitude towards rape victims needed to change.
- It further added that the victims had a right to privacy and should not have to live under such stigma throughout their lives.
- Even the dead have dignity and they cannot be named or shamed.
- Only Special Courts under POCSO can permit the disclosure of the identity of a minor victim, that too, only if such divulgence were in the interest of the child.
- The court urged States and Union Territories to set up at least one ‘one-stop centre’ in every district within a year to support women affected by violence.
Source
LiveMint.