The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected the plea of expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa seeking to restrain Facebook Inc., Google and YouTube from publishing or showing certain photographs of her, with a man belonging to a rival political party, at her residence in the capital.
“The public interest in knowing the meeting of the plaintiff (Ms. Pushpa) at her residence with a man belonging to a rival political party far outweigh the private interest of the plaintiff of keeping the same hidden from public eyes,” Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw while ordering her to pay ₹two lakh each to Facebook and Google as penalty.
Ms. Pushpa had initiated the suit in September 2016 seeking direction to Facebook, Google, YouTube LLC, and the Centre to restrain the publishing, broadcasting, distributing or disseminating of some alleged defamatory photographs of her.
The man shown in the photographs along with Ms. Pushpa belongs to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a political rival of AIADMK.
Ms. Pushpa had initially argued that though the photographs did not qualify as obscene but contended that she being married to another man, qualify as defamatory and pose a threat to her membership in Rajya Sabha as a nominee of the AIADMK.
The high court, in its 43-page judgment, remarked that the contention of Ms. Pushpa of the photographs being morphed was vague. It also questioned the alternate plea of Ms. Pushpa where she asked for them to be removed if found to be genuine.
“It is also not the case that the photographs were surreptitiously taken without the consent of the plaintiff (Ms. Pushpa). Rather, it is also not the case that the photographs are of the private life of the plaintiff," the high court observed.
“Without making out any case, the Court has been approached on the premise that any content on the internet pertaining to the plaintiff is removable at the asking of the plaintiff,” Justice Endlaw observed.
The high court said Ms. Pushpa has not disclosed, as to how the photographs showing her with another man, even if inside the house or a garden of the house, tarnish her image or are defamatory of her particularly considering that she is a politician...and who in a daily routine is bound to meet men as well as women including in her house.