Karnataka High Court Takes Suo Moto Cognizance Of Assault On Woman At Belgavi

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday took suo-motu cognizance of newspaper reports of a woman allegedly beaten up and paraded naked after her son eloped with a girl and later tied her to an electricity pole in Belgavi.

A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice M G S Kamal took note of reports appearing in the Deccan Herald and The Hindu newspaper.

The bench said “The caption and contents of the aforesaid news articles not only shocks our conscience but makes us to put our head down with anguish and pain in our hearts. On one hand while this Country is celebrating 76th year of Independence as 'Azadi ka Amruthotsav', on the other hand, in the State of Karnataka which is known for all valid reasons as a progressive State and a pioneer State of initiation of Social justice way back even when it was a Princely State of Mysore, faces this incident.”

Court noted that the victim was consoled by a Minister and that the media had taken pictures and videos of the same. 

Perusing the photographs appearing in the newspaper the bench said that though the print media has at least displayed some sensibility and sensitivity while publishing the photograph by blurring the image of the victim they were photographing and videographing the victim's reaction and narration regardless.

The court also directed that if any media house or its representatives had videographed the above interview of the victim during the visit of the Minister or any such interaction by the victim, they were not to telecast such an interview on any national or regional Channel. 

The court clarified that this was an interim direction only to ensure the dignity of the victim is maintained and that her identity was not disclosed or revealed.

We further make it clear that this Court by this interim order is not even remotely prohibiting the media from covering the news as this Court maintains and accepts the concept of freedom of press, it concluded.

Advocate General K Shashi Kiran Shetty submitted before the Court that he would also take appropriate steps immediately to see that there is no undue, uncalled and unwanted coverage of the incident in electronic media.

The court directed the Advocate General to submit a status report of the incident to the Court on 14.12.2023.

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