New Delhi:
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained sharing and posting of a “sexually explicit” video of a judicial officer and a woman that surfaced on November 29 and was circulated on social media platforms.
Justice Yashwant Varma, while allowing a plea to “conceal” the identity of the aggrieved party, said besides being in violation of several laws, circulation of the video would cause irreparable harm to the privacy rights of the petitioner, and an ad interim ex-parte injunction was therefore warranted.
The judge noted that the full court of the high court has itself taken cognisance of the incident on its administrative side, and pursuant to a resolution, its registrar general has conveyed to authorities the need to take appropriate action for blocking the video over all messaging and social media platforms as well as through internet service providers (ISPs).
“Bearing in mind the sexually explicit nature of the contents of that video and taking into consideration the imminent, grave and irreparable harm that is likely to be caused to the privacy rights of the petitioner an ad interim ex parte injunction is clearly warranted,” the court said in its order.
“The court has had an occasion to view the content in respect of which the complaint is made. The court bears in mind the provisions of Section 354C of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, as well as 67A of the Information and Technology Act, 2000, which laws, prima facie would appear to be violated in case further circulation, sharing and distribution of the video were to be permitted,” it said.
The content, if circulated amongst parties and users of the services provided by the defendant number 1 to 4 (social media platforms), would also appear to, prima facie, violate the legally acceptable terms of use as adopted by the defendants, the court observed.
