SC restrains media from telecasting images, videos of minor rape victims

New Delhi, Aug 2: The Supreme Court on Thursday restrained the media from telecasting images and videos of minor rape victims even in blurred and morphed form. The Court also expressed concern over the identity of child rape victims being revealed by media and as to how the media has revealed their identities.

A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta took suo moto cognizance of the matter after it received a letter from one Ranvijay Kumar from Patna and expressed concern that the alleged victims were subjected to media interviews.

The bench, which issued notices to the Bihar government and the Centre, asked the media not to interview the alleged victims. The apex court also asked media not to interview alleged victims of sexual assault and said that "they cannot be compelled to relive trauma again and again".

Earlier, the apex court took suo moto cognizance of the Muzaffarpur shelter home case in which a shocking 34 rapes were reported. The court issued a notice to the Bihar government and sought a detailed reply from the state administration.

The SC observation comes on the backdrop of a rising number of cases involving minors - the most notable being Kathua rape and murder, wherein the victim was an eight-year-old girl from Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district.