Delhi High Court: Anup Jairam Bhambhani, J., directed the the Delhi Police to assure that the immediate removal of a law student’s pictures from the Pornographic Website should be done as the images were taken without her consent from the social media platforms.
Petitioner who is a law student from Bangalore complained that her pictures that she had posted on social media platforms ‘Instagram’ and ‘Facebook’ have mischievously and illegally been lifted and placed by respondent’s 6 and 5 — Pornographic website along with derogatory captions.
An online complaint to DCP-South on 11-07-2020 was filed, but no action was taken.
Petitioner’s counsel, Sarthak Maggon submitted that petitioner verily believes that respondent 5 is a spurious website, which carries pornographic content and which ought to have been banned and taken down from the world-wide web by the competent authorities.
Respondent 5 unauthorizedly and illegally in utter violation of the provisions of Information Technology Act, 2002 and Penal Code, 1860 placed the petitioner’s photographs on that website.
By reason of the inaction on the part of the authorities, these photographs have already received 15,000 views.
Rahul Mehra, Counsel for respondent 2/State of NCT of Delhi submitted that urgent and immediate steps would be taken to first take down the petitioner’s photographs that have been uploaded onto the errant website and subsequently necessary investigation will be carried out to trace and punish the offenders.
Bench directed that the complaint made by the petitioner be transferred to the Cyber Prevention Awareness and Detection Unit (CyPAD) of Delhi Police and that immediate action as assured be taken to remove the petitioner’s photographs from the errant website. Matter to be listed on 30-07-2020. [X v. UOI, 2020 SCC OnLine Del 761 , decided on 17-07-2020]
