The Delhi
High Court has sought a response from the National Commission for Protection of
Child Rights (NCPCR) on a plea seeking FIR registration against Congress MP Rahul
Gandhi in connection with his tweet, wherein he had allegedly revealed the
identity of a minor Dalit girl, who was raped and murdered in 2021.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra
Sharma issued notice to NCPCR and asked for a counter-affidavit to be filed in
four weeks' time.
The bench also comprising Justice Sachin Datta listed
the matter for the next hearing on July 27.
The NCPCR's counsel claimed that they had not received
a formal notice and urged the court to do so in order for them to be able to
file an affidavit.
A 9-year-old girl had died under suspicious
circumstances on August 1, 2021, with her parents alleging that she was raped,
murdered and cremated by a crematorium's priest in southwest Delhi's Old Nangal
village.
A social activist Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar had moved
a plea in the High Court in 2021, alleging that Gandhi had violated the
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and the
Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012, which prohibits the
identification of minors who have been sexually assaulted.
The NCPCR had earlier told the High Court that it
wants to support and join the petitioner in the matter.
It had told the court that the offence of making such
a disclosure still exists, despite Twitter's claim that it had removed Gandhi's
tweet.
Sajan Poovayya, a senior lawyer representing Twitter,
had argued that "nothing survived" in the petition because the
contested post has been "geo-blocked" and is presently not accessible
in India.
He added that Gandhi's entire account was suspended by
the social media platform but was later restored.
Nonetheless, the petitioner and the NCPCR's counsel
had argued that the offence still exists.