Delhi High Court Closes Plea Seeking FIR Against Rahul Gandhi For Revealing Identity Of Rape Victim

The Delhi High Court has disposed of the petition seeking registration of an FIR against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for revealing the identity of a rape victim in his tweet.

A person named Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar had filed a writ petition in form of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking issuance of an appropriate writ, order, or direction, directing National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to take necessary legal action against Rahul Gandhi for his tweet.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said, “At page ‘8’ of the aforesaid status report, a copy of the FIR No. 240/2021 dated 9th September, 2021 has been annexed. From the said FIR, it is apparent that the same has been registered after filing of the writ petition at the instance of the Registrar, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, New Delhi vide complaint dated 4th August, 2021.”

Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani represented the petitioner while Advocate Tarannum Cheema represented the respondents.

In this case, the PIL was filed seeking direction to the Commissioner of Police, Delhi Police to register an FIR against Rahul Gandhi under Section 23(4) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) and Section 74(3) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The PIL also sought issuance of an appropriate writ, order, or direction, directing Twitter Inc., presently known as ‘X Corp.’ to remove the post of Rahul Gandhi from their social media platform.

The counsel for Rahul Gandhi stated that the impugned tweet has now been voluntarily taken down by him and that the said tweet cannot be viewed in India or abroad. The counsel for X Corp. confirmed the fact that the tweet has been deleted. The counsel for the NCPCR stated that the Vakalatnama has been filed and the photocopy of the affidavit has been handed over along with documents in a sealed cover. And the status report was also handed over.

In the above regard, the Court was of the opinion that all the prayers in the writ petition have been satisfied.

Accordingly, the High Court disposed of the writ petition and directed that the documents handed over by NCPCR along with the status report filed by Delhi Police be re-sealed and the same be kept in the safe custody of Deputy Registrar (Appellate).

Cause Title- Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar v. Rahul Gandhi and Ors.

Appearance:

Petitioner: Advocates Pavan Narang, Neeraj, Ravi Sharma, Prem T. Mishra, Anjani Kumar Rai, Siddharth Handa, Himanshu Sethi, Aishwarya Chhabra, Umesh Sharma, and Sumeet Chaudhry.

Respondents: Senior Advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi, SC Santosh Kumar Tripathi, Advocates Akshay N., Akash Singh, Kuber Boddh, Abhaid Parikh, Kartik Rathi, Aayush Shivam, Tanishq Tyagi, Arun Panwar, Pradyumn Rao, Utkarsh Singh, Kartik Sharma, Prashansa Sharma, Rishabh Srivastava, Nikita Vir, Shloka Narayanan Abhishek Kumar, Mehmood Pracha, Harshit S. Gahlot, Jatin Bhatt, and Mohd. Shameem.

Click here to read/download the Order