Delhi Cantt Case: NCPCR Says Allegation Against Rahul Gandhi For Posting Photo of Victim's Parents Survives Even After Withholding Of Tweet

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in a case seeking action against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday told Delhi High Court that the allegation, related to tweeting the picture of his meeting with the minor rape victim's parents, subsists, notwithstanding that his tweet has been withheld by Twitter.

"The content is only withheld in India. The offence still subsists as only in India the content has been restricted but the tweet still exists," the counsel representing the NCPCR submitted before the division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad.

The submission was made in a PIL plea seeking action against Rahul for allegedly disclosing sensitive details and publishing photographs of the minor victim's family, in violation of the provisions of POCSO Act

A nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped and murdered by a priest inside a crematorium last year in Delhi Cantonment Area. Rahul had later met the family of the victim.

Twitter has earlier informed the court that the parents of the victim had consented to sharing of their image by the Congress Leader on the social media platform.

During the course of hearing today, Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya appearing for Twitter told the court that while Rahul's Twitter account was initially blocked, it was later restored on his appeal. He argued nothing survives in the case now.

"Twitter first blocked the entire account of respondent no 1 [Rahul] but thereafter on an appeal by the first respondent, restored his account but deleted his tweet. Therefore the tweet is withheld in India and is not available anymore. In fact your lordships did not even issue notice to the other respondents except to Twitter saying that if it is available, let it be removed. We are on affidavit saying that the content has been withheld. Nothing really survives," Poovayya submitted.

However, the NCPCR counsel submitted that the offence still subsists as the content has been withheld only in India.

Responding to the contention, Poovayya argued being a world wide platform, Twitter has removed Rahul's tweet in India by way of geo-blocking mechanism, adding that it was impossible for the platform to do the same for international jurisdictions.

"First respondent (Rahul Gandhi) tweets a particular image pertaining to India and a complaint is filed that it violates Indian law. This is blocked. Content removal is basically by geoblocking. That content is blocked and therefore is not available," Poovayya argued.

He added "If I file an affidavit saying that this content is not available in any other part of the world [that] will be wrong because we don't know, let us say for example, in Hungary somebody has retweeted a particular tweet belonging to a person. We have 50 crore tweets coming up on our platform on a regular basis so it's just impossible for us. In India we goeblock it."

To this, NCPCR's counsel submitted "We believe that the offence survives. If my lords issue notice to me I'll also file my affidavit. I'll join hands with the petitioner, as a child protection body."

However, the court refused to issue notice to NCPCR at the present stage and said that it will hear the child rights body on the next date of hearing. Accordingly, the hearing was adjourned as a new counsel has been engaged by the petitioner.

The plea places reliance on the judgment of Nipun Saxena v. Union of India wherein the Supreme Court held that personal information and particulars of a victim or child in conflict with law cannot be disclosed in media.

It states that Rahul Gandhi's tweet was violative of Section 23 of the POCSO Act thereby attracting a punishment of minimum six months and maximum one year. It added that the aforesaid act of posting the picture was an attempt to take political mileage out of the unfortunate incident.

"It is submitted that Rape, particularly that of a minor girl, is one of the grossest crimes committed against children. Disclosure of such crimes to the outside world only adds to the agony of the family of the victim and the victim herself. By doing so the Respondent No.1 has put the lives of the victim's family members at high risk," the plea contends.

The plea seeks directions on NCPCR to take appropriate legal action against Gandhi. Further, a direction is also sought on the Delhi Police to register an FIR against him under relevant provisions of the POCSO Act.

Case Title: Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar v. Rahul Gandhi & Ors.