Delhi High Court today agreed to hear tomorrow a plea seeking to place before it a copy of the controversial documentary on the December 16 gangrape case.
The application to place a CD of the video and other documents was mentioned before a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva which allowed it to be listed tomorrow before the appropriate bench.
The application was filed in the PIl by law student Vibhor Anand who has sought broadcast of the documentary. The matter was already scheduled to be heard tomorrow by the bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw.
On March 12, the court had observed that media trials tend to influence judges by subconsciously creating a pressure. The observation was made by the bench headed by Justice B D Ahmed before whom the PIls of Anand and two other law students - Arun Menon and Kritika Padode - were listed as the bench of the Chief Justice was not sitting on that date.
The court had also said that although it is prima facie not opposed to airing of the documentary, it should be released after the Supreme Court decides on the appeals of the convicts in the matter. The court was also of the view that the documentary could "interfere with the justice system" but had refused to pass any interim orders saying it has to be decided by the appropriate bench - of Chief Justice.
The PIls were filed after a trial court on March 4 had banned until further orders the broadcast of the interview of December 16, 2012 gangrape convict Mukesh Singh, allegedly conducted in July 2013 inside Tihar jail here. The trial court had restrained media from broadcasting orpublishing the interview of Mukesh after Delhi Police moved a plea seeking the restraint.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry had also issued an advisory to all television channels not to broadcast it. The pleas have sought lifting of the ban on the ground that it is "a look at the mindset of one of the convicted rapists".
One of the PIls has also sought direction to the Bar Council of India to expedite action against the two lawyers -- advocate A P Singh and M l Sharma -- who had allegedly made derogatory anti-women remarks in the documentary. It has also claimed that the parents of the gangrape victim have not objected to the telecast of the documentary.
The victim, a physiotherapy student, was raped and assaulted with an iron rod after she boarded an unregistered private bus to go home after watching a movie with a male friend on December 16, 2012. Her male companion was badly beaten up and could not come to her rescue when she was assaulted in the bus. The two were later dumped naked and bleeding on the roadside.
The woman was airlifted to a Singapore hospital for treatment where she died -- 13 days after the assault -- of the injuries inflicted upon her. Mukesh, along with three others, was convicted and sentenced to death in September 2013 for the gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old victim.