The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the removal of the name, photos and videos of a junior doctor, who was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, from all social media platforms.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that disclosure of the identity of a sexual assault victim is a violation of its order passed in the Nipun Saxena case.
“This court is compelled to issue an interim order as social and electronic media have proceeded to publish the identity of the deceased and photographs of the corpse after the recovery of the body.
“We accordingly direct that all references to the name of the deceased in the aforesaid incident, photographs and video clips be forthwith removed from all social media platforms and electronic media in compliance with this order,” the bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said.
The top court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Kinnori Ghosh and others against disclosure of the victim doctor’s identity on social media.
The statement said the deceased’s name and related hashtags have been widely shared on electronic and social media platforms, including Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google (YouTube) and X (formerly Twitter).
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had said it was deeply concerned that the name of the deceased had been posted all over social media.
“There are photographs and videos everywhere in the media. This is extremely worrying. We are the first to recognise freedom of expression, but there are well-established parameters. There are court rulings, such as in the Nipun Saxena case, which state that the names of survivors of sexual assault will not be published,” the Supreme Court said.
In its 2018 judgment in the Nipun Saxena case, the apex court had said, “No person can print or publish in print, electronically, on social media, etc. the name of the victim or even remotely reveal any fact which may lead to the identification of the victim and which should make his identity known to the general public.”
The body of the junior doctor with severe injury marks was found inside the seminar room of the hospital’s chest department on August 9. A civic volunteer was arrested by the Kolkata police the next day for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder incident.
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