Chennai: Madras high court has directed the Union information technology ministry to ensure that the non-consensual intimate images (NCII) of a woman lawyer, which continue to resurface on the internet, are blocked and do not reappear.“This direction shall be complied with forthwith. This court wants to wait for the standard operating procedure (SOP) to be evolved by the department concerned, and once the same is filed before this court, it can be acted upon and a judicial order can be passed,” Justice N Anand Venkatesh said on Tuesday. The issue pertains to a plea moved by a woman lawyer seeking direction to the Union information technology ministry to take steps to remove nude photos uploaded on the internet by her boyfriend. When the plea came up for hearing on Tuesday, senior advocate Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam submitted that, as of date, the nude photo continues to appear on at least six websites.He brought to the notice of the court a press release issued by the Union home ministry emphasizing the necessity for every city to appoint a chief information security officer (CISO) to safeguard data and systems against cyber threats. Advocate A Kumaraguru, representing the Centre, submitted that the home ministry and the women and child welfare department were in the process of finalising an SOP, as suggested by this court in the earlier order dated July 15, and sought some more time to finalize it.State public prosecutor Hasan Mohamed Jinnah submitted that as per directions given by this court, the name of the survivor had been redacted from the FIR and all other documents. He further submitted that directions issued by Supreme Court in the Nipun Saxena case must be extended to all cases involving sexual offences against women. Jinnah said that, for the present, it is only confined to Section 228-A IPC (Section 72 of BNS) (disclosure of identity of victim of sexual offences) and to Pocso offences. The court adjourned the hearing to Aug 5.
