Mumbai: HC gives ultimatum, says take down videos of minor from porn websites or face contempt

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court  has directed operators of porn websites to forthwith block those sites on which nude and obscene videos of a minor were uploaded or faceaction under the Contempt of Courts Act. 

A division bench of Justices RD Dhanuka and MM Sathaye on Friday granted more time to the Union government and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for “best possible technical assistance”. 

Victim is now adult and pursuing medical course

The HC was hearing a plea by the victim, who is now an adult and pursuing a medical course, seeking that the authorities be directed to remove the videos and take necessary action against those running the websites. 

Ms Uma Wagle, advocate for the Union government and DoT, informed the court on Friday that their officers have tried to block the links but more and more links are generated while doing so. She said that “appropriate procedure will have to be followed to block those links completely”. Further she said that they are taking “all sincere efforts” to block those links to “avoid further inconvenience and hardship” to the petitioner. 

Apart from the Union government, the HC has asked the petitioner to “communicate” the order to the respondents operating the websites. 

The bench directed the respondents to remove the offending links from the website within 24 hours from the date of the communication of this order, and said it would “follow the appropriate procedure under the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971” if they failed to do so. The HC has kept the petition for ‘reporting compliance’ on Jan 16, 2023. 

According to the petition, the petitioner recently learnt that her certain nude and explicit obscene videos were uploaded on about 19 porn websites. On Sept 15, she registered a complaint with the Bandra Kurla Complex police station. Following the complaint, out of 19 links, 13 links containing such videos were removed, said government pleader Poornima Kantharia.