On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court issued an interim order late Wednesday night instructing social media networking sites to prohibit and cease the distribution of a video in which a judicial officer is seen in a compromising position with one of his office staff members.
Justice Yashwant Varma issued the direction after observing that the film is explicit in nature and is likely to cause an impending, grave, and irreversible injury to the private rights of the people seen in the video. “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 Court order said.
Justice Yashwant Varma: The provisions of Section 354C of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as well as 67A of the Information and Technology Act, 2000 prima facie, would appear to be violated in case further circulation, sharing and distribution of the video were to be permitted.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 30, 2022
It further asked the defendants “to take all permissible steps to ensure that the further sharing, distribution, forwarding or posting of the offending video is restrained forthwith.” The Court was hearing the case filed by the woman seen in the video. She said that the video was false and prayed for disabling social media users from sharing or forwarding the video.
Justice Verma meanwhile also noted that the provisions of Section 354C of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as well as 67A of the Information and Technology Act, 2000 prima facie, would appear to be violated in case further circulation, sharing and distribution of the video were to be permitted.
The suit seeks permanent injunction restraining the publishing/re-publishing/telecasting, in any manner, of a purported video dated 09 March 2022 which is stated to be circulating on various social media platforms as well as web portals since 29 November 2022.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 30, 2022
Reports mention that the video is from March this year however, the video had been circulating on various social media platforms as well as web portals since November 29, 2022. Advocate Dixit appearing for the woman said that as per the time stamp in the video, the complainant was not present inside the chamber but was actually present inside the court.
The Court’s ruling further stated that the Full Court had taken administrative notice of the video and passed a resolution on November 29. Following that, the Registrar General wrote to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) requesting that the video be blocked across all Internet Service Providers, messaging systems, and social media sites. As a result, the Court required MEITY to take all necessary procedures in response to the Registrar General’s notification and to file a document.
Advocates Ashish Dixit, Amit Sharma and Vandana Sachdeva appeared for the plaintiff in the case. The matter is further listed on December 9.
