Delhi HC Orders to Take Appropriate Actions to Block Circulation of Judicial Officer’s Sexually Explicit Video On Social Media

Akansha Upadhyay

Published on – 01 December 2022 at 19:07 IST

The Delhi High Court directed the Center and social media platforms to ensure that all appropriate steps are taken to prevent sharing of a sexually explicit video of a judicial officer, which has been in circulation on the internet since yesterday.

“The defendants shall take all permissible steps to ensure that the further sharing, distribution, forwarding or posting of the offending video is restrained forthwith.”

“The defendant No.5 [Centre] will also ensure that all further steps as are warranted in terms of the communication of the Registrar General dated 29 November 2022 are taken and compliance report submitted in these proceedings,” said the court.

Justice Yashwant Varma also asked the union government to comply with an early communication sent through the Registrar General asking the authorities to take appropriate action for blocking of the said video over all ISPs, messaging platforms as also social media platforms.

The Court remarked that, “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 plaintiff an ad interim ex parte injunction is clearly warranted,”

The order was passed on a suit, which sought a permanent injunction restraining the social media platform from publishing or airing the controversial video.

It is not known who filed the suit as the court has allowed the prayer to conceal the identity of the plaintiff. The case was heard on urgent basis, seeking to “disable” social media users from sharing or forwarding the video.

After going through the content of the complaint, the court prima facie observed that the provisions under Section 354C of IPC as well as Section 67A of the Information and Technology Act “would appear to be violated” in case further circulation, sharing and distribution of the video were to be permitted.

“The content, if circulated amongst parties and users of the services provided by the defendant Nos. 1 to 4, would also appear to, prima facie, violate the Legally Acceptable Terms of Use as adopted by the said defendants,” the court said.

The court also said that its Full Court had taken cognizance of the incident from the administrative side and had also passed a resolution yesterday asking the Centre to take appropriate action to block the video on all internet service providers, messaging platforms and social media.

Justice Verma allowed the prayer seeking concealment of the identity of the plaintiff.  The petition has also demanded an in-camera hearing of the case.

“Bearing in mind the disclosures made therein, the prayer to the extent of masking and pseudonymization of the name and other particulars of the plaintiff is allowed. The other prayers are kept open to be addressed at a later stage of these proceedings and independently,” the court said.

The court will now hear the matter on December 9

Title: AX v. GOOGLE LLC & ORS.

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