The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Tuesday directed Medical Superintendent SKIMS, Medical College Bemina, to explain how medical report of Bandipora alleged rape victim was leaked on social media sites.
The alleged rape of a minor girl at Sumbal in northKashmir’s Bandipora district earlier this month had triggered outrage acrossthe Valley.
Hearing its suo-moto Public Interest Litigation against thealleged rape, the bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rashid Ali Darissued notice to the Medical Superintendent to explain how the reports weremade public and why no confidentiality was maintained.
The directions came after victim’s counsel, ShafaqatNazir, informedthe court that reports related to medical examination of the victim were beingcirculated on the social media.
Advocate Farah Bashir, who assists as amicus curiae, toldthe court that the medical report mentions the name of the victim and its circulationin itself constitutes an offence under Section 23 of Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Disapproving of making the medical reports public, the courtsaid the reports should have been in possession of the hospital and theinvestigating agency probing the case.
With regard to the posters on vehicles disclosing the nameof the victim, the court directed the IGP Traffic, Kashmir, to issue directionsto the traffic police to ensure the material displaying the victim is removed.”This is completely impermissible activity in law,” the court said.
On behalf of the social media site face book, advocateFaisal Qadri submitted that Unique Resource locators (URLs) of the persons whohave posted the offensive posts as well as specific order regarding removal ofsuch posts was necessary.
With regard to the URLs of the posts which are identifiablefrom the report of the amicus curie, the court directed the Facebook toimmediately remove the same from its website.
In his status report, the IGP Kashmir, S P Pani, informedthe court about the status of the investigation and that the charge sheet hasbeen presented before the District and Sessions Judge, Bandipora.
The Sessions Court,the bench said, is expected to proceed in the matter expeditiously by ensuringall rights of the victim.
After it was informed that the order dated 17 May 2019 hadnot been communicated to M/s Google and Youtube, the court asked its Registryto ensure that a copy of the last order is sent to them before the next date ofhearing.
In response to the notices issued to the five newspapers onbehalf of Urdu daily Ilhaaq advocate S M Ayoub filed the response on behalf ofUrdu daily Ilhaaq and advocate Syed Musaib filed it on behalf of KashmirGlory.
On behalf of Kashmir observer, advocate T H Khawaja, soughtadjournment to file his response.
Advocate MuhammadAshraf Wani appeared on behalf ofKashmir Vision &Daily Afaaq. The court sought the responses within aweek.
After SeniorAdditional Advocate General B A Dar submitted that a copy of the report filedon behalf of the J&K State Legal Services Authority was with him, the courtasked him to file the same before the Registry within two days.
The court was informed that an interim compensation of Rsone lakh has been released by the District Legal Services Authority, Bandiporato the victim. The court listed the matter for further consideration on 3 July,2019.