Lawyers Fight Delhi Gang Rape Case Gag Order

A Delhi court's ban on reporting the court proceedings against five men accused in a recent gang rape case should be overturned, in order to help ensure that an attack like this does not occur again, lawyers challenging the ban said Monday.

It is not just the accused who are under scrutiny, said Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, a lawyer who is challenging the order. The entire “system” is being judged, he said, including the police who first responded to the crime and the doctors who treated a 23-year old woman who died in late December, of injuries sustained during the rape.

“In this case there was a systemic failure,” Mr. Mishra said. “The trial should be fair and transparent so that all the facts come out.”

On Monday, a magistrate in the Saket court declared the trial proceedings “in camera,” which means that only those directly involved in the case could be in the courtroom. The magistrate also placed a ban on the printing and publishing of details about the proceedings of the case without permission, effectively stopping journalists, who have followed this case with intense scrutiny, from reporting anything except prepared statements from the court house.

The ban was in response to overcrowding and chaos in the courtroom on Monday. Tens of lawyers, many of them female, had gathered in the court to oppose a handful of lawyers who were offering to represent the accused. Calling the accused men “beasts,” many lawyers argued that those who commit crimes with brutality don't deserve to be represented, especially by private lawyers. Scuffles broke out between the two groups, adding to the commotion.

“It is a case virtually of a crowd occupying every inch of space in the court room even to the extent of standing next to the sitting space allotted to the r eader and stenographer,” magistrate Namrita Aggarwal said. “It has become completely impossible for the court proceedings to proceed in this case.”

Mr. Mishra filed a “revision petition” before a district judge challenging the order on Monday afternoon. If successful, lawyers said, future proceedings, at least in the pre trial stage, will be open.

Specific court proceedings related to rape are typically kept private in India, including when the victim appears in court to give her testimony, or when sensitive evidence is being produced. In this case, the victim, who died from multiple organ failure two weeks after the incident, will not appear in court. Using a proxy name, opponents of the ban said, would protect her identity.

The public prosecutor, Rajeev Mohan, told the court that there was also an apprehension about the safety of the accused in court, because of the large gathering. At least 25 police, many of them female and from reserve forces , were present in court.