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BCI issues show cause notices to lawyers for anti-women remarks

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Defence lawyers in Delhi gangrape case, M L Sharma and A P Singh (Photo: PTI/DC)

Defence lawyers in Delhi gangrape case, M L Sharma and A P Singh (Photo: PTI/DC)

New Delhi: The Bar Council of India (BCI) late last night issued show cause notices to two lawyers who had appeared for the accused in the December 16 gangrape case for allegedly making derogatory anti-women remarks.

“We have issued the show cause notices to M L Sharma and A P Singh for their alleged remarks made in the (BBC) documentary,” BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said.

The lawyers’ apex body took the decision around midnight after its executive committee meeting in which it was found that there is a “prima facie” case of professional misconduct against these lawyers.

The notices have been issued under a provision of the advocates act and their licences to practice may be cancelled if BCI is not satisfied with their response.

Meanwhile, advocate Sharma refuted the charge, saying he has said nothing wrong to anybody.

In the controversial BBC documentary on the gang rape, Sharma reportedly said such incidents of rape are bound to happen if girls go out without proper security.

(PTI)

Revoke Ban on Nirbhaya Documentary: Editors Guild of India

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Nirbhaya-documentary

New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India today slammed the government’s move to ban ‘India’s Daughter,’ the documentary about the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012, and appealed for the ban to be revoked.

Calling the ban wholly unwarranted, the Editors Guild said it is based on misunderstanding of the power and the message behind the film.

Following is the full statement by the Editors Guild:

The Government of India’s move in banning the telecast of the BBC documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ depicting the aftermath of the brutal gang rape and murder of Nirbhaya is wholly unwarranted, based as it is on a misunderstanding of the power and the message behind it. The documentary portrays the courage, sensitivity and liberal outlook of a family traumatised by the brutality inflicted on the daughter, the continuing shameful attitudes towards women among the convict as well as the educated including lawyers and multiple voices in support of women’s freedom and dignity including students, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Justice Leila Seth, Oxford academic Maria Misra and senior advocate and former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam. While the Supreme Court has declared that there should be the broadest freedom to express even the most unacceptable of views, the message that emerges from the documentary is wholly positive and its power is such as to make people re-examine their own attitudes and the attitudes of people around them.

The Nirbhaya incident has been an obvious matter of public interest and has through all the stages of the investigation, trial and confirmation by the high court, been subject to a widespread public debate and discussion, protests and demonstrations and enquiry by the Justice Verma Commission that suggested reform of the law. To raise the issue of sub judice now at the stage of final appeal in the Supreme Court and seek to still discussion is absurd. Judges, particularly in the Supreme Court, are by training and temperament immune to the happenings in the public sphere outside the court, and it is an insult to the Supreme Court to suggest that the airing of the convict’s perverted views would tend to interfere with the course of justice.

Prompted by initial expressions of outrage, including by members of Parliament, over the views of the convict included in the documentary, the Government seems to have decided on the ban without viewing the documentary in its entirety. The rationale that the ban was in the interests of justice and public order as the film “created a situation of tension and fear amongst women” and as that the convict would use the media to further his case in the appeal that was sub-judice seems to be an afterthought.

The Editors Guild of India appeals to the Government of India to revoke the ban forthwith and enable the people to view what is a positive and powerful documentary touching on the freedom, dignity and safety of women.

Everyone must watch 'India's Daughter': Nirbhaya's Father

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nirbhaya-father

New Delhi: A day after the Nirbhaya documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ caused a ruckus in the Parliament, urging the government to ban the telecast in India, Nirbhaya’s father said that the ‘documentary holds a mirror to the society.’

Speaking to NDTV, Nirbhaya’s father said that ‘banning the documentary will only encourage people more to see it.’

“Everyone should watch the film. If a man can speak like that in jail, imagine what he would say if he was walking free,” said the father of the young woman who was brutally gang-raped, tortured and killed by six men, including a 17-year-old, on a moving bus.

The woman came to be known as “Nirbhaya” or fearless, and became a symbol for India’s fight to check crimes against women.

“The documentary exposes what is happening. If the country has taken a decision, we have to accept it,” he told the news channel.

Despite the opposition from the Indian government BBC Four aired the documentary early on Thursday morning.

The documentary is based on the 2012 Delhi gangrape which shook the nation. It includes interviews of Nirbhaya’s parents, doctors, lawyers and one of the accused Mukesh Singh. The filmmaker Leslee Udwin too appealed to the Indian government that banning the documentary was not right.

Gang-rape documentary: BBC telecasts film in UK as India calls for worldwide ban

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mukesh-singh

New Delhi: The British Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday morning (IST) telecast the controversial documentary in UK featuring one of the December 16 gang-rape convicts despite Indian government’s call to block the film worldwide.

The documentary’s broadcast was advanced by the BBC from its original March 8 scheduled date, coinciding with International Women’s Day.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police is, reportedly, likely to question Leslee Udwin, the British filmmaker who made documentary and interviewed convict Mukesh Singh in Tihar jail here.

The Home Ministry on Wednesday obtained orders from court to restrain the broadcast of the documentary and promising to investigate how permission was given to interview the rapist.

The issue was raised in both houses of parliament, as members across party lines asked the government to stop the telecast of the documentary saying it insulted women.

“Our government condemns the incident of December 16, 2012 in the strongest possible terms and will not allow any attempt by any individual, group or organisation to leverage such unfortunate incidents for commercial benefits,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in a statement in both houses of Parliament on Wednesday.

“In what condition this order was given I have asked for full information on that. In future, no one will be given permission to interview rapists,” the Home Minister said, as both houses saw members protest against the documentary.

Rajnath Singh said the permission for the documentary was granted in 2013, adding that the documentary maker violated the conditions on which the permission was granted.

Sushilkumar Shinde, who was the home minister in 2013, however, said he was not responsible for it.

“I had not given any permission to make a documentary on the Nirbhaya case. It was not given by me. I observed the conversation in parliament, Rajnath Singh has not mentioned my name. It must have been given by somebody, I do not know,” Shinde told reporters on Wednesday.

Making similar statements in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the home minister said orders were obtained from court Tuesday night to restrain the broadcast of the documentary.

A Delhi court on Wednesday directed continuation of the ban on the telecast of the documentary.

Rajnath Singh said he was personally hurt when he got to know about the documentary.

“I would like to make it clear. As soon as I got to know about this incident, I was personally hurt. I immediately talked to the concerned authorities and gave instructions that it should not be telecast in any condition, and (restraining) orders were taken from court last night (Tuesday) that whatever has been telecast should not be released,” he said.

As the Home Minister promised responsibility will be fixed, official sources said Tihar jail director general Alok Verma met him on Wednesday on the issue.

Parliament members across party lines condemned the interview of the December 16 gang rape convict, while some said it reflected the mentality of several other men in society.

“There is a documentary which is so derogatory. It should not be shown,” Janata Dal-United leader KC Tyagi said raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha.

Nominated member Javed Akhtar said that while members were angry about the comments made by the convict, he has heard similar comments in the house.

“The anger is why the interview was taken. Is the anger on why he said these things, or the anger is why is it being told to the world? I have heard such things in this house,” Akhtar said.

BJP Lok Sabha member Kirron Kher said: “Mentality needs to be changed. They don’t consider women as human beings.”

Several women activists also raised objections to the documentary calling it unacceptable.

“This is totally unacceptable. We have to draw an ethical boundary. I do not understand why they are doing it (airing the interview),” women’s rights activist Ranjana Kumari told reporters.

Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Barkha Singh said: “This defames the nation. How could they be given permission for interview?”

The documentary “India’s daughter” by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin has kicked up a storm over the interview of one of the six men who raped the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist on December 16, 2012 on board a moving bus in Delhi.

(Agencies)

I&B Ministry issues advisory against broadcasting of Nirbhaya documentary

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INDIAS DAUGHTER

New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting late on Tuesday night issued an advisory to all television channels not to broadcast the Nirbhaya documentary by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, news agency ANI reported.

It was not immediately clear what the advisory stated, but at least one Indian news channel had said it would air the documentary on 8 March, International Womens Day.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Delhi Police registered an FIR in connection with the controversial interview of a convict in the 16 December gangrape case while also saying that it would move court to seek a restrain order its airing.

Although nobody has been named in the FIR, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi maintained that the “main actor” is the person who has made these assertions and urged the media not to broadcast any assertion which transgresses the domain of law.

“This was a ghastly crime. One has to take into consideration that reporting of a crime does not transgress the domain of law and if that happens then the law will have to take its own course,” he told reporters in New Delhi.

In the interview conducted by Udwin and BBC, Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gangraped by six men on 16 December, 2012, said women who went out at night had only themselves to blame if they attracted the attention of gangs of male molesters.

“A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,” he had said. Singh also said that had the girl and her friend not tried to fight back, the gang would not have inflicted the savage beating, which led to her death later.

The FIR was registered under IPC sections 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) 505(1)(b) (With intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public), 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and section 66A of the IT Act (Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service) at the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police.

Asked against whom the FIR has been registered, Bassi said, “We have registered an FIR on the basis of media reports and we will investigate and whosoever would will be found guilty we will take action against them.”

Any assertion where the late victim is being maligned or where threat is being issued to women in general transgress the domain of law. We are going to move our court concerned for a restraint order, he added.

Udwin had claimed that she took permission from the then Director General of Tihar jail Vimla Mehra to interview Mukesh in prison for BBC.

Asked about this claims, Bassi said, “I am not aware of any permission. Even if it was given, it was given to remain in the domain of law. If any act transgresses the domain of law and particularly IPC, I am duty bound to take action and we have registered a case.”

(Agencies)

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