India News | HC Imposes Cost of Rs 10,000 on Lawyers for Revealing Identity of Sexual Abuse Victim's Kin

Mumbai, Jan 12 (PTI) The Bombay High Court expressed displeasure on the identity of minor sexual abuse victims being disclosed in petitions and imposed cost of Rs 10,000 on two lawyers for revealing the identity of a victim's mother in a plea drafted by them.

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This is the second time the court has raised concerns over such disclosure of identity of victims of sexual abuse.

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A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and P K Chavan, in its order of January 9, noted that despite the mandate of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, advocates Hrishkesh Mundargi and Manoj Tiwari for the petitioner have mentioned the name of the victim's mother in the petition and have also annexed photographs, chats and emails.

The Act prohibits the disclosure of identity of the victim's family members.

"For the same, we impose costs of Rs 10,000 on the advocate. The said cost is to be paid to the Kirtikar law library in Mumbai within one week from today,” the bench directed.

The court also directed that the petition be amended and the name of the victim's mother be masked and photographs removed.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by a man seeking to quash a sexual assault case registered against him.

In December 2022, the same bench had imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 on a law firm that drafted a petition disclosing the name of a sexual abuse victim.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)