via Video-conferencing

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

Date of decision: 20th April 2021

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W.P.(CRL) 1082/2020 & Crl. M.A. Nos.9485/2020, 10986-87/2020

‘X’

.....Petitioner

Through:

Mr. Sarthak Maggon, Advocate

alongwith petitioner in-person.

versus

UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

.....Respondents

Through:

Dr. Pavan Duggal, Amicus Curiae.

Mr. Ajay Digpaul, CGSC with Mr.

Kamal R. Digpaul, Advocate for UOI.

Ms. Gayatri Virmani, Advocate for

Ms. Nandita Rao, ASC for the State.

Mr. Meet Malhotra, Senior Advocate

with Mr. Aditya Vaibhav Singh,

Advocate for respondent No.3.

Mr. Parag P Tripathi, Senior Advocate

with Mr. Tejas Karia, Mr. Ajit

Warrier, Mr. Gauhar Mirza, Mr.

Shyamal Anand, Mr. Thejesh

Rajendran, Ms. Malikah Mehra and

Ms. Mishika Bajpai, Advocates for

respondent No. 4.

Mr. Sajan Poovayya, Senior Advocate

with Ms. Mamta R. Jha, Advocate,

Ms. Shruttima Ehersa, Advocate, Mr.

Pratibhanu, Advocate, Ms. Raksha,

Advocate and Mr. Sharan, Advocate

for respondent No. 7.

W.P. (Crl.) 1082/2020

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2021:DHC:1408

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANUP JAIRAM BHAMBHANI

J U D G M E N T

ANUP JAIRAM BHAMBHANI, J.

The internet never sleeps ; and the internet never forgets ! The

true enormity of this fact has dawned over the course of hearings

conducted in the present matter, when it transpired that despite orders

of this court, even the respondents who were willing to comply with

directions issued to remove offending content from the world-wide-

web, expressed their inability to fully and effectively remove it in

compliance with court directions; while errant parties merrily

continued to re-post and re-direct such content from one website to

another and from one online platform to another, thereby cocking-a-

snook at directions issued against them in pending legal proceedings.

2.

As submitted by Mr. Sarthak Maggon, learned counsel appearing for

the petitioner, the principal grievance of the petitioner is that her

photographs and images that she had posted on her private social

media accounts on ‘Facebook’ and ‘Instagram’ have been taken

without her knowledge or consent and have been unlawfully posted

on a pornographic website called ‘www.xhamster.com’ by an unknown

entity called ‘Desi Collector’ whereby the petitioner’s photographs

and images have become offensive by association. While certain other

details of the petitioner and the photographs taken from her social

media accounts have been recited in the petition, the same are not

being recorded here for reasons of privacy and confidentiality. The

W.P. (Crl.) 1082/2020

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2021:DHC:1408

petitioner claims that her social media accounts had the requisite

‘privacy settings’ activated and yet these accounts were compromised,

and her photographs and images were taken and placed on the

pornographic website. It is the petitioner’s contention that even

though her photographs and images are otherwise unobjectionable, by

placing the same on a pornographic website, the errant respondents

have ex-facie committed the offence of publishing and transmitting

material that appeals to the prurient interests, and which has the effect

of tending to deprave and corrupt persons, who are likely to see the

photographs, which is an offence under section 67 of the Information

Technology Act 2000 (‘IT Act’, for short). The petitioner also

contends that the errant parties have attached captions to her

photographs, which act falls within the mischief of other penal

provisions of the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code 1860 (‘IPC’, for

short).

3.

When the petitioner filed the present writ petition, she claimed she

had already filed a complaint on the National Cyber-Crime Reporting

Portal as well as to the jurisdictional police but to no avail; and by

reason of inaction on the part of the authorities, the photographs had

received some 15000 views with