The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea seeking to publish in the media the photograph of the 19-year-old Dalit woman who was tortured and gangraped by four upper-caste Thakur men in September in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district, PTI reported.
The court said that it cannot legislate on the matter and the petitioner can make a representation to the government. The plea also raised the matter of delay in trials on cases of sexual violence.
“These issues have nothing to do with law,” said the bench of Justices NV Ramana, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose. “Right to freedom of expression is there. There is enough law for this. It is unfortunate that such incidents happen.”
The 19-year-old Dalit woman had succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in Delhi on September 29. The rape had garnered more attention after the woman was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on September 30 without the presence of her family members.
On October 27, the Supreme Court had directed the Allahabad High Court to monitor the CBI investigation. Earlier in the month, the Supreme Court bench had called the incident “extraordinary” and “shocking”. It had also directed the Central Reserve Police Force to provide security to the woman’s family and witnesses in the case.
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