Raj HC bans ‘social media trials’ by police

Times News Network

Jaipur: Strongly defending the constitutional rights and dignity of accused persons, the principal seat of the Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur has held that police officials cannot publicly shame, parade, or conduct “social media trials” of accused individuals by circulating their photographs and videos online.

The court has issued detailed SOPs and urged the police to paste them at all the police stations.

A single-judge bench of Justice Farjand Ali, while deciding a criminal writ petition filed by Islam Khan and nine other residents of Jaisalmer, made strong observations against the growing trend of police-driven “media trials” in Rajasthan and termed such actions “a direct assault on human dignity and constitutional morality”. The order was pronounced Tuesday, and the copy was uploaded Thursday.

The petitioners approached the high court alleging that after their arrest, police officials photographed and videographed them in humiliating conditions and circulated the content on social media platforms, effectively portraying them as criminals before the trial.

Coming down heavily on the practice, Justice Ali observed, “An accused is merely an accused and not a convict. The constitutional presumption of innocence remains intact unless displaced by a finding of guilt recorded after a fair trial.”

In one of the strongest observations, Justice Ali said the police “cannot arrogate unto itself the role of judge in the court of public opinion.”

The court warned that publicly circulating images of accused persons, forcing them to sit in degrading conditions or conducting “perp walks” amounted to institutional humiliation and extra-legal punishment with no sanction under law.

The court further remarked that the right to dignity under Article 21 does not “evaporate upon arrest” and stressed that even accused persons retain fundamental rights. “Once such photographs enter the digital domain, the stigma becomes permanent, causing irreversible damage to reputation, mental health and social standing — even if the accused is later acquitted,” the court noted.

The court observed that such conduct reflects a “colonial consciousness of control and subjugation” incompatible with constitutional democracy. The court further directed strict compliance with newly issued SOPs prohibiting police officials from uploading photographs or videos of arrested persons on social media or sharing them with the press. The SOP included that no person with a clean record should be publicly paraded, disrobed or subjected to degrading treatment.

The high court ordered that the basic human rights of every arrestee, as well as of any individual entering a police station with a grievance, shall be scrupulously respected. “No person shall be subjected to misbehaviour, mishandling, manhandling, harassment or any form of coercion under any circumstances,” the court said. It further ruled that any police-orchestrated social media condemnation would be treated as a form of punishment not recognised under Indian law.
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