MADURAI: Observing that a moment of misplaced trust should never become a lifetime of suffering, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has appealed to young women and girls to exercise caution in safeguarding their privacy and dignity in the digital world.
In a 137-page order, a bench of justices N Anand Venkatesh and KK Ramakrishnan said that in the present digital era, some unscrupulous individuals exploit the trust and emotional vulnerability of young girls and women, inducing them to share their intimate photographs or videos and resort to blackmail, thereby subjecting the victims to continued exploitation, humiliation, and psychological trauma.
“No matter how deep the affection, trust, or promise of confidentiality may appear, intimate photographs or videos should never be shared with anyone digitally. Once such material leaves one’s exclusive control, it can easily be misused, leading to irreversible consequences for the victim’s privacy, dignity, and mental well-being,” the judges said.
Considering the importance of the issues involved, the judges delivered the above portion of the judgment in English, Tamil, and Hindi.
Earlier, the court had voiced its concern for the mental well-being of a woman investigating officer of a case as she had to endure sifting through 60 files of obscene material to locate evidence.
Stating that no amount of police or legal training would inoculate a human from absorbing such toxic material without incurring mental cost, the court opined that the time has come for the judiciary and institutional leaders to confront this challenge through mandatory psychological screening, regular counselling, decompression protocols after exposure, rotation of personnel, etc.
The bench made the observations while dismissing an appeal filed by T Kasi, alias Suji of Kanniyakumari, challenging an order passed by a Mahila Court in Nagercoil three years ago, convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment till natural death for sexually assaulting several women and extorting money from them. The judges said the offending material found in relation to the number of victims shocked the judicial conscience of the court.
Citing that he is a habitual sexual predator and the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, they refused to interfere with the lower court’s order.