BREAKING: Delhi High Court Orders Blocking Of Judicial Officer's Sexually Explicit Video On Social Media

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday evening directed the Centre and social media platforms to ensure that all appropriate steps are taken to prevent the 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 a 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. 

"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 said.

The order was passed on a suit which sought a permanent injunction to restrain the social media platforms from publishing or telecasting the video in question. It is not known who filed the suit as the court has allowed a prayer to mask the identity of the plaintiff.

The case was heard after an urgent mentioning on Wednesday evening. The suit also prayed for "disabling" the 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 noted that its Full Court had taken cognizance of the incident on the administrative side and also passed a resolution yesterday wherein the Centre has been asked to take appropriate action for blocking of the video over all internet service providers, messaging platforms and social media platforms. 

The court will now hear the matter on December 9.

Justice Varma allowed the prayer seeking masking of the plaintiff's identity. The application also sought in camera hearing of the suit.

"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.

Title: AX v. GOOGLE LLC & ORS. 

Click Here To Read/Download Order