Madras High Court directs MeitY to remove private videos of woman lawyer uploaded by ex

The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed that the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to take appropriate action to identify, remove and block private images and videos of a woman lawyer recorded without her consent by her male partner and widely circulated across the internet and digital platforms [X v UOI & Ors]..Justice N Anand Venkatesh directed that same be completed by the Union Ministry within a period of 48 hours."This Court has to exercise its power and ensure that the untold agony faced by the petitioner is at least mitigated by removing those contents as early as possible and to ensure that the petitioner is able to lead a normal life at least in future," the judge said..The petitioner, a woman advocate, filed the present plea seeking a direction for the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to act on her representation dated June 18, 2025. She urged the removal and blocking of non-consensual intimate images and videos of her, which were secretly recorded by her former partner during a relationship built on false promises of marriage. These videos were widely circulated on over 70 websites, social media and digital platforms, severely impacting her personal and professional life.It was alleged that despite filing a first information report (FIR) and naming the accused, the content continued to be shared causing public shaming and reputational harm to her..The petitioner further prayed before the Court that advanced technologies, such as Hash Matching Tools, AI-based content recognition (like PhotoDNA and Google’s content safety hash checkers) be used to effectively remove such content and prevent it from being shared again on the internet or any digital platform now and in the future.The judge said that it is the duty of Constitutional courts to protect the privacy and dignity of citizens. "it is the duty of a Constitutional Court to safeguard the fundamental rights that has been guaranteed to all persons and not limited to just citizens when it comes to gross violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Right to privacy and right to dignity is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The same is being violated every second insofar as the petitioner is concerned.".The Court also said that in a similar case, the Delhi High Court had made significant efforts to find a solution to this serious problem faced by young girls across the country."This lengthy exercise that was undertaken by the Court has to be followed up by the respondent, since it is the duty of the State to safeguard the fundamental rights of its citizens. It is only the respondent who has been vested with the power, even as per their own stand taken before the Delhi High Court, to initiate action under the Information Technology Act for removal of the contents from the Internet and social media platforms," the Court observed..In light of the above, the Court directed the Union Ministry to act on the woman lawyer's plea. Additionally, to promote awareness among police personnel, the Director General of Police was suo motu added as a party to the present case.Senior Advocate Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam and advocate Rajagopal Vasudevan appeared for the woman.Senior Advocate A Kumaraguru appeared for the Union government. Government Advocate V Meganathan appeared for the State..[Read Order]