The Delhi High Court on late Wednesday night passed an interim order directing social media platforms to block and stop the circulation of a video in which a judicial officer is allegedly seen in a compromising position with a woman stated to be working on his staff.

Justice Yashwant Varma passed the order after noting that the video is explicit in nature and that imminent, grave, and irreparable harm is likely to be caused to the privacy rights of the persons 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. Consequently, notice shall issue to the defendants. 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 Court ordered.

The order was passed by the Court in a suit by the woman who is stated to be in the video. She has argued that the video is fabricated.

A short video clip had gone viral on social media where a judicial officer was seen in a compromising position allegedly with one of his court staff. The time stamp showed that the video was from March 2022.

The Court order also noted that the Full Court had taken cognizance of the video on its administrative side and passed a resolution on November 29, Subsequently, the Registrar General had written to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to take action on blocking the video overall Internet Service Providers, messaging and social media platforms.

The Court, therefore, directed MEITY to take all steps as warranted in terms of the Registrar General's communication and file a compliance report.

Advocates Ashish Dixit, Amit Sharma, and Vandana Sachdeva appeared for the plaintiff in the case.

References:

barandbench.com