The Delhi Court on Friday dismissed a PIL filed against a few media houses for disclosing Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal in connection with her alleged assault case.
Hearing the plea, a division bench of acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora of Delhi High Court rejected the plea saying it had political colour the AAP MP herself was going to the media, talking about the case.
“It is very clear that your vision is coloured and blurred. You are not talking about victim shaming... There is a political hue in this petition. It is very very apparent. You have done this only for publicity,” the bench observed dismissing the plea, Bar and Bench reported. “I want to ask the Bar Association, what are the lawyers doing today? Not fair what you are doing today,” the bench said. The petition was filed by advocate Sanser Pal Singh.
The bench asked if the victim is going to television channels and talking about, who the petitioner is to file a public interest litigation.
The petition said outraging the 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, published or aired.
Rajya Sabha MP Maliwal has alleged that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bhibhav Kumar assaulted her at the chief minister's official residence on May 13. Kumar was arrested on May 18 and he was recently remanded to judicial custody.
-with inputs from agencies.
