The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked three former students of O.P. Jindal Global University in Haryana to share the password of their ‘iCloud’ account.
The Bench led by Justice S.A. Bobde passed the order on the basis of a plea by an MBA student, who accused the trio of having allegedly stored certain objectionable photos of hers in the facility.
All the three were convicted and awarded varying jail terms for gang rape and other offences.
But the Punjab and Haryana High Court had last year suspended their sentence on the ground that the victim’s testimony offered an “alternate casual relationship with her friends, acquaintances, adventurism and experimentation in sexual encounters.”
‘Give victim access’
The court said the victim should be allowed access to the iCloud account in order to ensure that the photographs are not circulated.
“Some of the photographs were unfortunately sent by the girl herself. We are not deciding the moral issue here. Somebody is released from jail and the complainant is troubled that the password is still with them. We are not going to relent on this aspect. You can’t exercise this threat. You have to allay her apprehension and remove any fear or threat,” the court addressed senior advocates Shanti Bhushan, Mukul Rohatgi and Huzefa Ahmadi, on behalf of the three students.
‘Under duress’
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the victim, argued that his client was under duress and urged the court to have a look at her WhatsApp chat to understand “gut-wrenching” threats she was subjected to by the accused.
“This is the big thing for you if you get the password. We can understand your feelings. We are objectively trying to ascertain your security. We will decide later if such kind of crimes hurts society,” the Bench told Mr. Gonsalves.
The court scheduled the case for hearing on February 15.
