Plea Before Kerala HC Seeks Rs. 10 Lakh Compensation For Sharing Pictures Of Arrested ABVP members To Media
The plea states that sharing pictures of the accused in jail with the media amounts to a violation of the right to privacy under Article 21.
A writ petition has been filed before the Kerala High Court seeking compensation of Rs. 10 Lakh each for sharing pictures of jailed ABVP members with the media. The plea alleges violation of petitioners' right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The plea filed through Advocate K Arjun Venugopal states that the petitioners were arrested on 28 August 2022 by falsely implicating them in bailable offences by Thampanoor Police Station and were released on station bail.
The plea claims that the Police Officer took pictures of the petitioners when they were inside the jail through their mobile phones and leaked it to the media.
The said photograph appeared in Kairali News hours after the petitioners were arrested and the said pictures appeared in prominent newspapers which included Manorama, Mathrubhumi, and Kerala Kaumudi, and on the front page of Deshabhimani on 29 August 2022 along with the petitioners’ names.
The petitioners who belong to ABVP, a student organization, were arrested from the hospital for allegedly pelting stones at the ruling party- CPIM’s Thiruvananthapuram District office.
The petition states:
"There is no provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 empowering Police to publish a photograph of an accused who is not an absconder. In the absence of an enabling law, the Respondents cannot claim that their actions come under reasonable restrictions that can be imposed on fundamental right to privacy of the Petitioner."
Further, the petition also states that the Kerala Police does not have a uniform practice of causing the publication of photographs of the accused in all cases of arrest and it has resorted to such an illegal method in the present case only because the ruling political party is interested in the case.
The plea has relied on Apex Court's Judgement of K.S Puttaswamy vs UOI and Clause 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights which give every person a right to respect for private and family life.
The petition has prayed before the court to declare that the Kerala Police did not have the authority to cause a photograph or video of the arrested accused published in media or social media in any manner without permission of the State Police Chief in terms of Section 31(3) of the Kerala Police Act, 2011.
Further, it also seeks compensation of Rs.10 lakh each for sharing the pictures of petitioners to media jointly from Kerala Police and the State Government.