The Delhi high court in the previous week sought responses from the center, Facebook, Google and Twitter on a petition seeking information of those who uploaded the photo of petitioner's wife and wrongly claiming it to be the photograph of the Hathras rape victim.

The bench presided by Justice Pratibha M Singh ordered notices to the Ministry of Electronics and Information technology and the aforesaid social media platforms and sought for their responses in a sealed cover.

The petitioner moved an application seeking complete details of the originator of the offending material, to which the court directed that notice be issued to the respondents.

The court also directed the respondents to file their replies, in response to the application filed by the petitioner within two weeks.

Moreover, the basic subscriber information of the person who had uploaded the videos, has been directed to be produced before the court in a sealed cover, before the next date of hearing.

Facts of the Case:

In this case, the petitioner has submitted that the photograph of his diseased wife was being circulated on various social media platforms as the victim of the incident of rape and murder of a young girlat Hathras in Uttar Pradesh.

The council contended that even otherwise the revelation of the identity of the victim was an offence under the Indian Penal Code, though in the present matter image of the wrong person is in circulation.

Significantly, in January 2021 Google, Facebook and Twitter had notified the court that they had blocked and  taken down all links which incorrectly showed the diseased woman’s photo as that of the Hathras victim.

The Delhi High Court, in October 2020 had directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and others to act on the complaint expeditiously if the complaint of the petitioner is found to be true.