‘What if she had been my daughter’: Justice N. Anand Venkatesh turns emotional during the hearing of the case and praises her for fighting the stereotypes in society

The Madras High Court, on Wednesday (July 9, 2025), directed the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to take necessary steps to detect, remove, and block private images and videos of a woman advocate, recorded by her male partner without her consent and circulated widely on the internet and digital platforms.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh ordered that his direction must be implemented by the Centre within 48 hours. He said, the woman was undergoing great mental agony because the non-consensual images and videos were getting uploaded, shared, re-uploaded, and transmitted not only through pornographic websites but also private messaging applications and social media pages.

The judge further called for a compliance report from MeitY by July 14 and decided to keep the writ petition pending for issuing further directions to all stakeholders in order to ensure that young women do not get subjected to such trauma, at least in the future. He suo motu included the Director General of Police/Head of Police Force too as one of the respondents to the writ petition filed by the woman advocate.

In her affidavit, the petitioner stated that she fell in love with a man during her college days and spent private moments with him after he promised to marry her. However, she was unaware at the time that he had recorded their intimate moments on his mobile phone without her knowledge. It was only after the images and videos went viral that she lodged a police complaint against him and a WhatsApp group administrator on April 1.

Petitioner’s representation to Meity
The petitioner also made a representation to MeitY on June 18, urging the Ministry to issue instructions to all intermediaries, websites, pornographic platforms, and telecommunication service providers to take down the objectionable images and videos by employing hash matching technology and AI-based content recognition tools, such as photo DNA, Google content safety hash checkers and other such technological solutions.

Senior counsel Abudu Kumar Rajarathinam said, MeitY had failed to act upon the petitioner’s representation, forcing her to file the present writ petition. He recalled Justice Subramonium Prasad of the Delhi High Court had passed elaborate orders in a similar case on April 26, 2023. Yet, the Ministry does not act fast upon receipt of complaints received from young women subjected to such public humiliation, he complained.

The senior counsel also urged the court to issue a direction to Tamil Nadu police to coordinate with MeitY for the removal of such images and videos immediately after the registration of criminal cases on the basis of complaints lodged by women. “We have created Frankenstein-like monsters called the internet and social media without first putting in place a mechanism to prevent our women from facing such trauma,” he said.

Judge turns emotional
Justice Venkatesh grew emotional during the hearing of the case. With moist eyes and a choked voice, he told the senior counsel: “I was just thinking, what if this woman lawyer had been my daughter.” He also insisted on meeting the woman in his chambers to offer words of courage. “Now, I have to prepare myself and make sure I do not break down during the interaction with her,” he added.

The judge also said, the petitioner was able to fight the stereotypes in society because she happened to be a lawyer. “Fortunately, she is in this profession and she has the help of all of us here. What happens to some silent sufferers who cannot gather the courage to fight?” the judge asked and said, it was the duty of the State as well as the constitutional courts to ensure the fundamental right to dignity of every individual.