SC stops separated couple from posting each other’s photos

NEW DELHI: In an unusual order, the Supreme Court has restrained a separated couple from posting each other’s pictures on social media or online.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra issued the directive last week while annulling the couple’s marriage. The woman expressed an apprehension that her former husband might malign her reputation by posting her pictures on social media platforms.

Her lawyer, Dushyant Parashar, informed the court that the husband had tarnished the woman’s image in the divorce petition he filed before the trial court. It amounted to character assassination, he said.

The top court was hearing a petition filed by the husband, seeking bail in a criminal case filed by the woman under the Information Techmnology Act.

Parashar claimed the former husband had hacked into his client’s email ID and downloaded the woman’s income-tax details and she had registered a criminal case against him. Although the petition was not before it, the court invoked it’s extraordinary powers to annul the marriage.

The bench also made another unusual direction. It expunged the allegations the two made against each other in the divorce petition and also said none of the two “shall be entitled to get the certified copy of the said pleadings.”

As the couple was present in the court, the bench recorded a consensual order to dissolve the marriage. It asked the husband to pay ₹37 lakh to the wife as final settlement. The bench then went on to quash all the criminal cases the women registered against her ex-husband.