New Delhi, February 11 The Supreme Court on Wednesday reprimanded a female lawyer for a "derogatory" Facebook post targeting another woman who had accused Kerala Congress MLA Rahul Mamkoottathil of rape.
"As a woman, what kind of comments have you made about other women… If it were a man who had written all this nonsense, we would have arrested him right here," said a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi while rejecting a plea filed by Deepa Joseph.
Joseph had apprehended arrest by the Kerala Police in connection with the social media post. Initially, the bench expressed serious displeasure over the language and tone of the post.
"Are you expected to write in this kind of language? You are an advocate," said the CJI.
The female lawyer stated that the contents of her post were based on information provided by the husband of the complainant who had made the rape allegation against the Congress legislator, and that nothing defamatory was written.
"Do we expect a practicing female advocate to write all these things," the CJI asked.
The petitioner maintained that she did not write anything defamatory and did not reveal the identity of the victim.
The bench stated that the language used was the most derogatory, and asked how a woman could write like that against another woman.
"You have not spared a single word in your vocabulary. And yet, you are not regretting! Should we read out what you have written in public," the bench asked.
"If the husband has confided in you, since you are an advocate, then you would put that confidential information in the public domain," the bench asked.
The bench asked whether the lawyer was hired by the husband of the complainant to write "all this nonsense."
"It is not nonsense, Sir," the lawyer replied.
The bench dismissed the plea and asked the lawyer to approach the high court for any relief.