Delhi HC to hear plea Wednesday to take BBC documentary on record

New Delhi, March 17 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday posted a plea for March 18 that sought to place before it a copy of the controversial BBC documentary "India's Daughter" on the December 16, 2012 gang-rape.

A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva posted the matter before an appropriate bench for Wednesday, when two public interest litigations (PILs) for revocation of the ban on the telecast of the documentary will come up for hearing.

The bench had earlier declined to immediately revoke the ban on the telecast of the documentary.

It said it has "no problem" about airing the documentary but the case (appeals of the convicts against death sentence) was pending before the Supreme Court.

It also observed that media trials tend to influence judges by subconsciously creating pressure.

The documentary is about the gang rape of a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist, who was brutally assaulted on December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in Delhi.

It kicked up a storm after one of the convicts Mukesh Singh was interviewed in Delhi's Tihar jail.

The documentary also has comments from the convicts' counsel A.P. Singh and M.L. Sharma, who allegedly made derogatory remarks against women.

The documentary caused an uproar among a section of people in India after the government banned its telecast in all formats.

The PILs said the ban on the documentary was in clear violation of fundamental rights under article 19 of the Constitution.

They sought direction to declare as illegal the act of banning the documentary by the home ministry, the information and broadcasting ministry, and the Delhi Police commissioner.

The trial court had on March 4 banned until further orders the broadcast of the documentary.

The pleas also sought direction for the Supreme Court registry to constitute a three-judge special bench to hear the appeals of the four death row convicts, pending since August 25, 2014.

The Supreme Court in July put on hold the execution of the four convicts in the case.

As per social media, the public at large wanted to see the documentary, as within a day of it being put up on YouTube, it was viewed by more 2.86 lakh people, the pleas said.