Delhi HC orders immediate removal of photographs uploaded on a porn site taken from instagram posts

BACKGROUND

• A plea had been moved in the High Court of Delhi by a woman having a confidential identity, who complained that her pictures that were posted by her on Instagram and Facebook had been mischievously and illegally been taken and uploaded on a pornographic website with derogatory captions
• It had been submitted by Mr Sarthak Maggon, who appeared on behalf of the petitioner that the portal run by the respondent was a spurious website having pornographic content which should necessarily be banned and removed by the competent authorities from the world-wide-web 
• Further, it was submitted that the website was in total violation of provisions of the Information Technology Act 2002 and the Indian Penal Code having petitioner’s photographs uploaded on it illegally with no authority
• It was also submitted in the petition that Facebook Inc should also be held liable under their privacy and cyber safety norms as it owns Instagram
• Mr Rahul Mitra appearing on behalf of the Delhi Government submitted that urgent and instant steps need to be taken to remove the photographs first followed by an investigation to pursue and punish the wrongdoers
• The Counsel  further submitted that the action with respect to the offences lies with State of NCT of Delhi as cyberspace in the country is regulated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Home Affairs of the Union of India

ORDER OF THE COURT 

• The Single Judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani transferred the complaint to the Cyber Prevention Awareness and Detection Unit being the specialized unit of the Delhi Police fully equipped to deal with cybercrime matters
• The Delhi High Court also passed orders directing the Delhi Police to  take instant steps to remove the photographs of the petitioner which had been uploaded  on the pornographic website without her consent
• Notices were issued by the court to the Central government, the Delhi government and the Internet Service Providers Association of India
• All the respondents were directed by the court to file their counter-affidavits within 3 weeks. The matter is to be taken up next on 30 July

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