Do Not Give Unnecessary Publicity To Pune Woman's Suicide Incident: Bombay HC

Do not give unnecessary publicity to the incident of a woman allegedly committing suicide in Pune and her suspected illicit relations with a man, said the Bombay High Court in an order made available on Friday. 

On hearing a petition filed by the woman's father against news articles on his daughter, her death and her alleged relationship, a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale gave the orders.

Senior counsel Shirish Gupte, appearing for the woman's father, told the court the petitioner had learnt that his daughter fell from the balcony of her flat in Pune on February 8 and was declared dead at the hospital.

Soon after the incident, various news reports in print and electronic media emerged alleging the 23-year-old woman was in an illicit relationship with a man, Gupte said, dubbing the reports as defamatory and derogatory.

Around 12 audio clips of alleged conversations of the petitioner's daughter with some unknown person were circulated by political parties and the media, Gupte argued.

Gupte referred to a high court judgment delivered on a petition against media trial in the death case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput that laid down guidelines to be followed by the media while reporting on sensitive cases.

The bench, in its order made available on Friday, noted that it found prima facie substance in the petitioner's argument and directed the media to scrupulously follow the guidelines issued by the HC and not to publish or give any unnecessary publicity to the incident of death of the daughter X of the petitioner and the further alleged illicit relationship of the daughter X with Y, the court said.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on March 31.

With PTI Inputs