Tejpal case: HC asks sessions court to redact references to victim's identity

The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed a sessions court which recently acquitted journalist Tarun Tejpal in a 2013 rape case to redact all references in its judgment which disclose the victims identity before uploading it on the courts websiteA vacation bench of Justice S C Gupte was hearing an appeal filed by the Goa government challenging the May 21 judgment passed by sessions judge Kshama Joshi acquitting Tarun Tejpal in the caseTraun Tejpal former editorinchief of Tehelka was accused of sexually assaulting his then colleague in the lift of a fivestar hotel in Goa in 2013 while they were attending an eventThe sessions court while acquitting Tarun Tejpal questioned the victims conduct holding that she did not exhibit any kind of normative behaviour such as trauma and shock which a victim of sexual assault might plausibly showSolicitor General of India Tushar Mehta appearing for the Goa government on Thursday told the HC that the observations made in the judgment and most of the findings with regard to the victim were astonishingThe judgment which is yet to be uploaded on the courts website and made public also in various paragraphs discloses the identity of the victim woman This is a criminal offence he saidAlso ReadBombay HC to hear Goa govts appeal against Tejpals acquittal on May 27The judgment discloses names of the victims mother and husband and also the victims email ID which indirectly reveals her victim name Mehta saidJustice S C Gupte said he would take care of this and passed an order saying Considering the law against disclosure of identity of victims in such offences it is in the interest of justice to have these references redactedThe trial court is accordingly directed to redact the references made in the judgment that disclose the identity of the victim before uploading the judgment on the courts website Justice Gupte saidMehta told the court it was sad that the HC has to order this redactionThe trial court ought to have been sensitive towards these issues he saidCriticising the observations and findings in the judgment Mehta further mentioned that the sessions judge says a victim of sexual offences should display trauma and only then her testimony can be believedThe system expects sensitivity apart from judicial jurisprudence while dealing with such matters We owe it to the girls victims Mehta saidHe also questioned references made in the judgment to the victims meeting with senior advocate Indira Jaisingh and other women lawyers to discuss the case before recording of her statement with policeThis girl who is a victim of sexual abuse had approached senior and reputed advocate Indira Jaisingh The girl rightly took advice from a woman lawyer What is wrong with that Mehta saidHe told the court that the government considering the seriousness of the matter filed its appeal even before it received a copy of the judgmentWe received a copy of the judgment only on May 25 We would like to bring the judgment on record and also amend the grounds of challenge in the petition Mehta saidThe court allowed the same and posted the appeal for further hearing on June 2This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever