Delhi HC Restrains Circulation Of "Sexually Explicit" Video Of Judicial Officer

The Delhi High Court issued directions to social media platforms to prevent the sharing of a sexually explicit video involving a district judge that went viral over the past few days.

The woman staffer, allegedly a part of the video approached the high court with an urgent plea against violation of her privacy.

The plaintiff was represented by lawyers Amit Sharma, Vandana Sachdeva, and Ashish Dixit.

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Delhi HC Restrains Sexually Explicit Video's Circulation

The single-judge bench of Justice Yashwant Varma observed that “imminent, grave and irreparable harm” could be caused to the woman’s privacy if her request for the video to be blocked was not granted.

Reportedly, the court allowed a prayer to mask the identity of the plaintiff.

The high court noted in its order that the full court had taken cognisance of the said video on the administrative side. A resolution was passed by the full court directions were issued for the video to be blocked.

The order was passed on a suit which sought a permanent injunction to restrain social media platforms from publishing or telecasting the video in question.

The court said in its order that sharing or circulating the video violates the legally acceptable terms of use as adopted by the defendants.

The order was passed on a lawsuit by one of the people in the video and it sought a permanent injunction restraining the publication of the video dated March 9, 2022.

Varma restrained the “sharing, distribution, forwarding or posting of the offending video”.

The Delhi High Court issued notices to the Centre and social media platforms in the lawsuit and listed the case for further hearing on December 9.

The court said sharing or circulating the video violates provisions under Section 354C of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67A (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit acts, etc) of the Information and Technology Act.