HC orders sealed filing of obscene or intimate material involving women

Jaipur: In an order reinforcing the constitutional right to privacy and dignity of women, the Rajasthan High Court has directed that obscene or intimate photographs and videos connected to victims or survivors involved in criminal cases must never be filed openly in court records and should only be submitted in sealed covers.

The high court issued a series of statewide directions to court registries and police authorities about maintaining anonymity of victims/survivors, redacting identifying details from records, and ensuring that names and addresses of victims/survivors are not disclosed in cause lists or public documents.

The order dated May 21 was passed by Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand while hearing a criminal miscellaneous petition filed by Naveen, a resident of Kotputli district, who sought quashing of an FIR registered against him in a rape case.

The petitioner submitted video recordings before the court, claiming that he was falsely implicated. “We filed pictures and pendrive, which show that the accused in the rape case is not the petitioner, who has been wrongly confined in jail,” counsel for the petitioner, Deshraj Kalwania, told TOI.

However, during the hearing, the court took serious exception to the manner in which obscene photographs of the complainant were annexed openly with the petition, observing that such a filing exposed the identity of the woman and amounted to a gross violation of her privacy.

Justice Dhand observed that privacy and dignity are inseparable facets of Article 21 of the Constitution. “When dignity is lost, everything is lost,” the court remarked, adding that criminal investigations and court proceedings cannot be permitted to become instruments for humiliating women.

The high court noted that in several criminal cases, accused persons attempt to rely on intimate photographs or videos to portray relationships as consensual. The court said that filing such material openly in judicial records results in indecent portrayal of women and exposes survivors to public scrutiny.

“Filing of such photographs depicting private moments between girl and boy or man and woman certainly amounts to an indecent portrayal of the victim and constitutes an invasion of her privacy,” the court observed.

The court clarified that while an accused may rely on such material in defence, no person can be permitted to annex obscene photographs, videos, CDs, or pendrives openly with petitions, applications, or chargesheets. “Such material is required to be filed only in sealed envelopes,” the court directed.

Public prosecutor Jitendra Singh Rathore assured the court that the state would comply with the directions issued to safeguard the dignity and identity of victims in sensitive cases. “Usually, the police submit such material in sealed envelopes when it is used as evidence,” Rathore said.

A senior police officer said the directions are significant because they also apply to accused persons and private litigants who seek to place such material on judicial records.