HC directs Centre to look into Man's complaint claiming deceased Wife's Photo circulating as Hathras Victim

The High Cout of Delhi has asked the Centre to act on a complaint filed by a man alleging that a photograph of his deceased wife is being circulated on multiple social media platforms wrongly depicting her as the victim of the Hathras case.

The Court directed the petitioner to send the necessary documents in support of the man's grievance to the respondent Ministry along with a copy of the court order, also identifying the URLs which are to the knowledge of the petitioner currently carrying the offending content.

The Court said that "In view of the submission made, the respondent no. 1 (Ministry of Electronics & Information Technologies) is directed to look into the complaint of the petitioner and, if the complaint of the petitioner is found to be correct, act on the same expeditiously, in any case, within a period of three days from the receipt of a copy of this order, by issuing necessary directions to the respondent nos. 2 to 4 (Facebook, Twitter, & Google) in this regard".

Acting on the petition, a single-judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla issued notice to the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technologies, Twitter, & Google.

The Court asked the respondents to file a reply on the plea & listed the matter for further hearing on Nov 9.

The lawyer for the petitioner further submitted that "even otherwise, the revelation of the identity of the "rape" victim is an offense under the Indian Penal Code, though in the present matter image of a wrong person is in circulation".

The lawyer for the respondent Twitter has agreed that the petitioner can make a complaint to the National Crime Records Bureau, & once the information regarding the offending URL is forwarded to the Respondent Twitter through the proper channel referring to this court order, the same would be blocked & removed from its platform. Similar submission is made by the counsel for the respondent Google.

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