• AAKANKSHA KUMAR

The year 2017 saw an unprecedented rise in cases of revenge porn being reported in national dailies. Revenge porn involves sharing of private and intimate – most often sexually explicit pictures – of a person without their consent. Typically such images are shared by jilted lovers or former partners as a way to seek revenge. There are an estimated 3000 revenge porn websites worldwide. A 2016 survey conducted by Cyber & Law Foundation, an NGO in India points out that 27% of internet users aged 13 to 45 has been subjected to such situations. However, what is also somewhat heartening, is that in a first of its kind conviction, a 23-year man has recently been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 9,000, by a court in Bengal's East Midnapore district, for sharing nude video of his 20-year-old girlfriend on a pornography website. The main agenda behind publication of this private, intimate, yet explicit and, what may be labeled as obscene material, seems to be, to shame, blackmail or intimidate the person in the images, often to get sexual favours in return or get back in their life. Although there is no specific provision that speaks of revenge porn offences in Indian law, the 2008 amendment to the Information Technology Act, 2000 has inserted three important sections that can prove to be extremely useful in taking action against the perpetrator of any kind of online revenge porn by describing the transmission of private images as privacy invasion, and thereby outlaw-ing such invasions. However, unfortunately, cases of successful convictions remain few and far between. Further, while the Copyright and Right of Publicity laws in other countries have been put to use successfully against perpetrators of revenge porn, these areas of fruitful use by victims remain largely untapped. This paper seeks to look at the nature of revenge porn cases in India and shall analyse the provisions of the IT Act as well as explore the remedies under the Copyright Act, the tort of passing off and Right of Publicity and the constitutional guarantee to the Right of Privacy to explore the available legal and policy framework to counter the menace as well as deter future offenders. The aim of the paper is to work out a comprehensive framework for potential victims to adequately seeks enforcement of their rights and also to guarantee a safer cyber-space experience when in a relationship, and more when out of it.

Revenge, Porn, Voyeurism, Non Consensual Pornography, obscene material, privacy, IT Act, Publicity, copyright

"The twisted saga of the jilted “ex”: Tackling Revenge Porn cases and privacy invasion on cyberspace in India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 8, page no.303-311, August-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1808341.pdf

"The twisted saga of the jilted “ex”: Tackling Revenge Porn cases and privacy invasion on cyberspace in India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 8, page no. pp303-311, August-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1808341.pdf