The social media intermediaries have been directed by the Delhi High Court to remove any URL of the video that they may have where a judicial officer was allegedly seen in a compromising position with one of his staff members.

The suit was disposed by Justice Yashwant Varma who directed that social media intermediaries have to act if and when a complaint is received.

The suit was filed by the woman (plaintiff) who was seen in the  video.

The court passed an order was after the plaintiff submitted that the defendant-intermediaries had taken remedial steps and, therefore, the prayer for damages was not being pressed 

As per the judge Justice Varma if  in case the plaintiff brings to the  notice of the intermediary  any remaining URLs which relate to the offending video,the  request would be examined independently.

The court added that if it finds any new matter in subject matter of the suit, new steps would be taken.The court has also allowed  refund of court fee to the plaintiff since the claim was satisfied. 

The order was passed however certqin intermediaries opposed such a direction, arguing that it would place them under a continuing obligation to attend to any issues that may arise. 

On November 30, the High Court had passed the interim order directing social media platforms for blocking and stopping the controversial circulation of the video thy potrays judicial officer  in a compromising position with a woman stated to be working as a member of his staff.

The video with the timeline of March 2022 was a short video clip that went viral on social media.

The order was passed by Justice Yashwant Varma  after noting that the video was explicit in nature and an imminent, grave and and irreparable harm would to be caused to the privacy rights of the persons in the video.

Thus keeping it in mind, social media platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook were told by the High Court that they have taken down the video and blocked several URL

.

The Supreme Court on Monday heard the plea seeking directions to the Central Government to restrain all online social media networks operating in India and not to carry out any Islamophobic posts or messages hurting or insulting the feelings of a particular community. 

A bench led by the Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice A.S. Bopanna has asked the petitioner who appeared in person to peruse the new IT Rules passed by the Central Government and listed the matter for hearing after a week.  

The plea filed by Advocate Khaja Aijazuddin has sought directions to restrain social media platforms from carrying Islamophobic content and to direct a CBI or NIA probe against Twitter, its users involved in putting out “inflammatory posts.”

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The plea stated, “A Religious Congregation was conducted from 13th March 2020 to 15th March 2020 at Delhi organized by Tablighi Jamat at Nizamuddin, Delhi where Scholars or attendees have come from across the World and from the different States of India and the Organizers have housed them by providing necessary day to day facilities. After the conclusion of the meeting somewhere after 20.03.2020 there was massive spread of Coronavirus resulting the Government of India declaring 22.03.2020 as “Janata Curfew”, all over the Country which means entire Country on that particular date shall be closed fully and thereafter lockdown was announced by the Government of India on 24.03.2020 till 14.04.2020 and thereafter extended till 17.05.2020. After the attendees were dispersed to their respective States and during or after arriving their respective places, there were some cases of detection of Coronavirus symptoms in the attendees who came from abroad and are staying at Nizamuddin, Delhi where congregation took place, and therefore the “State” took them for Quarantine as per the norms. Due to massive publicity given by the media that many of the positive cases of symptoms of coronavirus were found from Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin, Delhi, there was a massive trending of Tweets on the Twitter attaching the Muslim religion to the cause of spread of coronavirus.”

New Delhi: The Kerala High Court has recently passed an order not to allow use of any social media platform by a rape accused till the investigation gets over.

This order has been given by Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan, while hearing a bail petition of a man accused of raping a girl. The court has observed that old methods or conditions like asking to surrender the passport or appear before an investigation officer while granting bail to an accused in a crime is fairly common, but times have changed now.

The court has observed:

The court has further observed:

Muhammed Shifas (28), from Ernakulam, the accused in the case, took advantage of his relationship with the victim to take her to a resort in Cherai on December 22, 2018 on the pretext of giving her a birthday gift. He then raped her.

Thereafter, he had taken nude photos of the victim and threatened her not to tell anyone about this or he will post her pictures on social media. Not only that, he further used this as his tool of getting his desires fulfilled and raped the girl six more times.

Though the girl obeyed his command, he posted her pictures on Facebook and demanded Rs 1 lakh from her to delete those pictures.

The prosecution has requested to the court that the girl is in fear that if the accused is released on bail, he may circulate the photos on social media again. Under such circumstances, there was nothing wrong in imposing a condition that the accused shall not use social media platforms.

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The court has allowed the bail in view of the principle that bail is the rule and present situation of Covid-19 Pandemic.

Read the order here;

-India Legal Bureau

The High Court of Telangana has issued notice in a petition seeking action against social media platform Twitter for allowing Islamophobic hashtag trends in relation to Coronavirus (COVID-19).

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy was hearing a petition filed by Advocate Khaja Aijazuddin seeking directions to initiate criminal proceedings against twitter and its users who posted hateful posts.

The petitioner has submitted that several illegal trends are run on twitter with hashtags like #Islamiccoronavirusjihad, #Coronajihad, #Tablighijamat, #Nizamuddinidiots, #TablighiJamatVirus and other Islamophobic posts.

The petitioner has also sought directions to restrain all online sites in India from carrying Islamophobic posts as they hurt the feelings of the Muslim community, pointing out that such posts may disturb the communal harmony in the country.

The petitioner has submitted that “Attaching the religion to pandemic disease which is done by social network users on Twitter is highly unwarranted, illegal and unconstitutional.”

The bench issued notices to the Union Cabinet Secretary, the Union Home Secretary, Telangana Director General of Police, Hyderabad Commissioner of Police, and Twitter Inc, represented by its Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey and has sought their response before the next date of hearing which is July 20.

The petitioner had earlier filed a petition before the Supreme Court which directed him to approach the Telangana High Court.

-India Legal Bureau