Come up with simple mechanism to remove private images & videos of women from internet, Madras High Court directs Centre

The Madras High Court on Tuesday (July 15, 2025) directed the Centre to come up with a simple mechanism through which women could get their private images and videos removed from the internet and digital platforms, if they had been uploaded surreptitiously by unscrupulous elements, without compromising their identity.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh directed central government senior panel counsel A. Kumaraguru to develop a prototype after taking instructions from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on appointing a nodal officer for grievance redressal.

The directions were issued on a writ petition filed by a woman advocate whose former partner had recorded their private moments without her knowledge and shared them on social media. The petitioner complained the images and videos had landed on several porn sites too thereby causing great amount of agony to her.

Senior counsel Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam told the judge though MeitY had complied with an interim order passed by him last week to block the websites in which her client’s images and videos had been displayed, those websites had resurfaced again and continued to display the same images and videos.

Stating the problem with the Internet was the presence of technically sound criminals, the judge said, it was not as if there was no technology available to prevent re-surfacing. “The technology is always there but what is required is the inclination to put it to use for the benefit of the common man,” he added.

The judge said, the system was so that it would work with its might and remove all traces from the Internet if the victim happened to be a daughter of a Minister of a judge but it does not show the same eagerness and energy if the victims happen to be common citizens with no connections whatsoever with the mighty and powerful.

Justice Venkatesh said, technology such as tracing photo DNA must be put to best use so that women do not have to suffer silently because of increasing instances of their private images and videos getting shared on public platforms or being subjected to harassment under the threat of releasing those images in public.

Judge raps police

The judge also rapped the police for having mentioned the name of the woman advocate in the First Information Report (FIR) registered against her former partner on the basis of a complaint lodged by her. He wondered how the police could be so insensitive to disclose her identity in a public document.

He directed the police to redact her name from the FIR forthwith and came down heavily on the police department for having made the victim watch the private images and videos along with seven male police personnel, after she lodged the complaint, in order to identify the perpetrator.

“Don’t you have women police personnel well versed in cyber crime? Can’t you ask those women personnel to deal with such cases? How can you make the victim sit along with seven male police personnel to watch those videos? Does it not amount to violating her right to dignity?” the judge asked.

Stating investigation in offences against women must be done with a lot of sensitivity, the judge insisted on the appearance of State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohamed Jinnah on the next hearing so that necessary instructions could be issued to the police department.