Delhi High Court Directed Registrar General To Transfer Fine Paid By News Organisations To Jammu & Kashmir Legal Service Authority: Kathua Rape Case

The Delhi High Court in the case observed and has directed the Registrar General for depositing the amount paid by news organisations as fine for disclosing the Kathua rape victim’s name, with the Victim Compensation Fund maintained by Jammu And Kashmir State Legal Services Authority for disbursement of the same to the victims or the family of deceased victims of sexual violence.
In the present case, in 2018, the high court had taken suo motu note of the media reportage of the rape case, the court noted that the name of the victim was widely reported by the journalists. Therefore, the manner in which the incident was being reported in contrary to Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 as well as Section 228A.
The division bench comprising of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad in the case observed that the manner of reporting of the incident is also against the public justice.
The court issued the notice in April 2018 to 16 media houses. The court has directed to them for depositing a sum of Rs 10 Lakh each with the J&K State Legal Services Authority. Later, it included more media houses in the array of parties for payment of compensation.
The court was informed told that Al Jazeera was yet to deposit the amount, when the matter was listed before the court on February 18 in 2020. Before the Court, the counsel appearing for the Qatar-based news group earlier submitted that this week that it was not served the notice earlier. It has also been submitted by the counsel that a Demand Draft of Rs 10 Lakh is ready and prayed for time for depositing it with the Registrar General.
The court while closing of the suo motu proceedings stated that all the media houses have complied with the directions issued earlier.
It has been stated by the court that the Registrar General of this Court is directed to transmit the amounts which is to be by Respondents No 8, 28 and other Respondents in the present case and if any such amount is still lying with the Court to the compensation fund of victim which is being maintained by the Jammu & Kashmir State Legal Services Authority for disbursement of funds to the victims or families of the deceased victims of sexual violence.