Delhi HC pulls up advocate for filing PIL on reporting of Swati Maliwal assault case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday pulled up an advocate for filing a PIL seeking to stop the media from reporting the name of Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal in the assault case allegedly involving Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s close aide Bibhav Kumar.

The high court observed that the petition was only for 'publicity' and there seemed to be a 'political colour' to it.

It said when the 'victim' (Maliwal) herself is coming out and talking about the alleged incident, what is the problem with the petitioner who is a third party.

“When the victim wants to talk about it then who are you to say anything. The victim is not complaining but you are complaining. What is the role of a third party in this? The victim is coming openly about it. It is very clear that your vision is coloured and blurred. You are not talking about victim shaming,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora said.

It said, “If the victim is going to television channels and talking about, who are you to file a public interest litigation” and added “there is a political colour behind this PIL”.

The court was hearing a petition by advocate Sanser Pal Singh seeking to stop the media from disclosing identity of the victim in the Maliwal assault case and to take action against those who have deliberately disclosed the identity of the victim along with the contents of the FIR.

The bench warned the lawyer that a complaint would be lodged against him with the bar council and added that the petition has been filed without proper research.

“You are doing all this for publicity. A complaint should be made to the Bar Council of Delhi. What you are doing is not fair,” the bench said.

To this, the counsel representing the petitioner sought liberty to withdraw the petition.

“After some arguments, the counsel for the petitioner wishes to withdraw the petition. The petition is dismissed as withdrawn,” the high court said.

Advocate Yogesh Swaroop, representing the petitioner, said name of the victim cannot be displayed or circulated in case of sensitive matters, including matters of section 354 (outraging modesty of woman) of the IPC and in the present case, FIR has been shown in news reports telecasted/published in news channels and news reports along with the name of victim which is against the judgment and guidelines of the Delhi High Court.

The plea sought a direction to certain media houses not to further telecast or post the name of victim along with the contents of the FIR.

The petition said outraging of modesty of a woman is also a sexual offence and in such a case, name of the victim along with the entire facts of the case should not be revealed or published or aired.

Kumar is in custody in connection with the alleged assault on Maliwal at the CM's residence earlier this month.