IANS
New Delhi, Aug 25: The Supreme Court on Friday barred the possible telecast or publication of Bollywood starlet Monica Bedi's photographs, allegedly shot surreptitiously during her stay in the women's ward of Bhopal jail.
While banning the possible telecast of Bedi's "obscene" photographs, the bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan also directed the information and broadcasting ministry to communicate the apex court order to various news channels for compliance.
The bench, which included Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice R V Raveendran, banned the possible publicising of Monica's photographs on her petition, seeking court intervention to protect her right of privacy and right to life with dignity.
The girlfriend of extradited mobster Abu Salem moved the apex court through her counsel K T S Tulsi under Article 32 of the constitution, invoked when the Fundamental Right of an individual is violated.
Bedi approached the court a day after Zee TV telecast her "objectionable and obscene" photographs, which was released to the media by an opposition leader of Madhya Pradesh.
A Congress leader of the state had released the photographs contending that the security arrangement inside the Bhopal Jail was so fragile under the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state that one can even photographs women even in the jail's bathroom.
Without acknowledging if Monica's photographs, allegedly shot in the jail with hidden camera were genuine or morphed, Tulsi said that the possible telecast or publication of these photographs would impinge upon his client's right to privacy and her fundamental right to life which included the right to live with dignity.
In her petition, Bedi said that in case these photographs were found genuine and were indeed shot with hidden camera, it called for a high level-probe into how it was shot inside the jail.
"If the photographs are found to be genuine, the officials responsible for the security of the jail deserves to be dealt with sternly," Monica said in her petition.
She was acquitted by a Bhopal court in a passport forgery case on July 16 and was released July 25 from a Hyderabad jail after getting bail from a court there in a similar case.