<p>The Bombay High Court on Wednesday sought to know the Maharashtra goverment's stand in the cases, where the identity of sexual assault victims is revealed on social media platforms.</p>.<p>A division bench of Justices R V More and S P Tavade noted that revealing the names of rape victims was a cognisable offence punishable up to two years in jail under section 228 A of the IPC.</p>.<p>"Tell us what action the state will take in such cases. What is the state government's stand," the court asked.</p>.<p>The bench was hearing a petition filed by a rape victim seeking directions to the state government and the Centre to strictly follow the provisions of law, which prohibits disclosure of names and photographs of rape victims.</p>.<p>The petitioner's lawyer Madhavi Tavanandi pointed out the recent Hyderabad rape and murder case where the victim's name and photograph was published across Twitter and other social media platforms.</p>.<p>The lawyer further said that the content is still available online.</p>.<p>On the last hearing, the bench had directed the petitioner to serve a copy of the petition to social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and search engine Google.</p>.<p>On Wednesday, advocates appearing for the companies said the petitioner will have to implead their US-based counterparts as they have control over the content.</p>.<p>The lawyers said the petition has tagged Twitter India, Facebook India and Google India, which only take care of marketing and advertising.</p>.<p>The India-based companies have no role to play in the content being uploaded on the social media platform and also cannot delete any content.</p>.<p>The bench then directed the petitioner to add Twitter Inc, Google LLC and Facebook Inc as respondents in the petition and posted it for further hearing after four weeks. </p>
<p>The Bombay High Court on Wednesday sought to know the Maharashtra goverment's stand in the cases, where the identity of sexual assault victims is revealed on social media platforms.</p>.<p>A division bench of Justices R V More and S P Tavade noted that revealing the names of rape victims was a cognisable offence punishable up to two years in jail under section 228 A of the IPC.</p>.<p>"Tell us what action the state will take in such cases. What is the state government's stand," the court asked.</p>.<p>The bench was hearing a petition filed by a rape victim seeking directions to the state government and the Centre to strictly follow the provisions of law, which prohibits disclosure of names and photographs of rape victims.</p>.<p>The petitioner's lawyer Madhavi Tavanandi pointed out the recent Hyderabad rape and murder case where the victim's name and photograph was published across Twitter and other social media platforms.</p>.<p>The lawyer further said that the content is still available online.</p>.<p>On the last hearing, the bench had directed the petitioner to serve a copy of the petition to social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and search engine Google.</p>.<p>On Wednesday, advocates appearing for the companies said the petitioner will have to implead their US-based counterparts as they have control over the content.</p>.<p>The lawyers said the petition has tagged Twitter India, Facebook India and Google India, which only take care of marketing and advertising.</p>.<p>The India-based companies have no role to play in the content being uploaded on the social media platform and also cannot delete any content.</p>.<p>The bench then directed the petitioner to add Twitter Inc, Google LLC and Facebook Inc as respondents in the petition and posted it for further hearing after four weeks. </p>