Following a Supreme Court order, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has asked all social media platforms to remove the name and photograph of the victim in the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case, the ministry said in a press release on Wednesday. The IT ministry has also directed the platforms to inform the cyber law department of the ministry about the action taken to comply.

The Supreme Court’s August 20 order passed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra in Kinnori Ghosh & Anr v. Union of India & Ors said, “This Court is compelled to pass an interim order as the social and electronic media have published the identity of the deceased and photographs of the body after the recovery of the body. We accordingly direct that all references to the name of the deceased in the above incident, photographs and video clips be removed immediately from all social media platforms and electronic media in accordance with this order.”

MeitY said, “In view of this order, MeitY hereby stresses the importance of complying with the court’s direction to protect the privacy and dignity of the individuals concerned. Therefore, social media platforms are required to take immediate steps to ensure compliance with this order. … requests all social media companies to ensure that such sensitive information is not further disseminated. Failure to comply with the Supreme Court’s order may invite legal consequences and further regulatory action.”

It is not clear what will happen to the victim’s public social media accounts, including Instagram, from where the viral photo was taken. HT has reached out to Meta and MeitY for more information.

The complaint was filed by members of the Bar Association because the victim’s name and associated hashtags “were widely circulated on electronic and social media platforms such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google (YouTube) and X (formerly Twitter).” “In addition, photos of the deceased’s body, including video clips, were circulating on social media and electronic platforms,” ​​the order said.

The court observed that this was in violation of the court’s directions in Nipun Saxena & Anr v. Union of India & Ors, 2018. “This court directed that the identity of rape victims should be protected and the media, including the press, electronic and social media, should not reveal their identity,” Monday’s order said.

In accordance with the Nipun Saxena case verdict, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a directive on January 16, 2019, prohibiting anyone from “printing or publishing the name of the victim in print, electronic or social media or even remotely disclosing any facts which would lead to the identification of the victim and make his identity known to the general public”. The directive said that in cases where the victim is deceased or mentally ill, his name or identity would not be disclosed even if the next of kin authorised it, until the disclosure was permitted by the sessions judge. The directive said that all authorities to whom the name of the victim is disclosed are “obligated” to keep the identity secret.