Bombay High Court imposes ₹5,000 costs on law firm for disclosing rape survivor's name in petition

The Bombay High Court recently imposed ₹5,000 costs on law firm Hulyalkar & Associates for disclosing a rape survivor's name in the petition.

For the petitioner, Advocate Zaid Anwar Qureshi, briefed by Hulyalkar & Associates, sought the Court's permission to amend the petition to mask the petitioner's name.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj K Chavan granted permission but noted that, despite Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), lawyers often disclose the identities of rape survivors in their petitions.

"Despite Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code and despite repeatedly telling the Advocates that it is an offence to disclose the name of the prosecutrix which is punishable with two years, the name of the prosecutrix is disclosed in the aforesaid petition," the Court said.

Hence, it directed the law firm to deposit ₹5,000 with the Kirtikar Law Library within two weeks.

[Read Order]