Delhi House Court Says, “Expression Of A Victim’s Trauma Or Experience Is His/Her Fundamental Right.”
Coping mechanisms. As someone who has an “inappropriate” coping mechanism (or so I have been told), I tend to not judge others for how they choose to deal with trauma, as long as it isn’t harming themselves or anyone else. I personally use a lot of humour if I am ever discussing anything negative about my life and have experienced being the subject of scrutiny for being able to crack jokes about pretty serious subjects. However, what I have experienced is very different from what this employee experienced when she was asked to not talk about her sexual assault experience by her workplace, ScoopWhoop. However, the Patiala House Court in New Delhi has claimed that it is the fundamental right of a survivor to talk about the experience in order to heal from the traumatic experience.
The Patiala House Court in New Delhi was looking into the sexual harassment case of Samdish Bhatia who is a former employee at the popular digital media company, ScoopWhoop. The former CEO of ScoopWhoop, Sattvik Mishra was the accused. He resigned from his position earlier this year, citing personal reasons.
During this time, Whoopscoop Media Pvt. Ltd., the company that owns ScoopWhoop approached approaching looking to temporary order against Bhatia (and anyone else), which prevents them from writing, speaking, creating content, publishing, reporting or carrying out any articles which talk about the situation. They claimed this under the guise of wanting to safeguard the reputation of the company.
Also Read: Supreme Courts Rules Inserting Finger Into Vagina Of Minor Girl Is Penetrative Sexual Assault Under POCSO
Preeti Parewa, the Additional Civil Judge was hearing in on the matter declined Whoopscoop’s plea, according to reports. She said, “Expression of a victim’s trauma or experience is his/her fundamental right.” Which is completely fair, in my opinion. The court also added that this right can only be restricted under the pretext of, “libel, slander, defamation,” “contempt of court,” “offen[sive in terms of] decency or morality,” or “undermines the security or tends to overthrow the state,” something which hasn’t happened in this instance.
Many healthcare experts have talked about how important it is for sexual assault victims to be able to talk about it to heal from the trauma. Self-expressing is an important coping mechanism. An article published in Harvard Health Publishing has claimed, “Writing about thoughts and feelings that arise from a traumatic or stressful life experience — called expressive writing — may help some people cope with the emotional fallout of such events.”
