A Very Public Affair

There's instances of honeymooners checking into hotels at hill stations unwittingly figuring in footage. Anyone using the changing rooms in clubs etc can now be a target. The footage usually gets circulated through MMS or internet or is used for blackmail. There are cases of married couples suddenly finding their photographs on the net after the hotels they booked into hid cameras and filmed their private moments.

It doesn't just end there. A Lucknow girl was filmed by her boyfriend on a Nokia 6600 camera phone while they were having physical relations. He later made CDs out of the MMS clips and put it up for sale. In another shocking incident, a student from Allahabad got his friends to film his girlfriend and later circulated the MMS. The incident was quite reminiscent of the Delhi Public School boy who did the same to his girlfriend last year (later also transferred to CDs and sold). A landlord in Pune went a step further. He secretly installed a camera in the bathrooms of his tenants—all young college-going girls—and then sold the footage at a local porn market. Anara Gupta, a Jammu model, was allegedy filmed having sex by a local cable operator. As always, the porn CDs finally made their way into the market.

So what is our defence vis-a- vis privacy laws? Right now, they are not well-defined, so anyone with a camera can shoot anyone else. The Constitution, in fact, does not expressly recognise the right to privacy. However, the Supreme Court, in 1964, has ruled that there is a right of privacy implicit in the Constitution under Article 21 which safeguards personal liberty.

The only law under which a victim can seek redressal is the Information and Technology Act which Parliament passed in '00. While unlawful attacks on the reputation of a person can invite action in court, a comprehensive legislation on convergence (internet, radio, TV), though planned, is still not in place. The proposed bill was referred to the Standing Committee on IT which gave its recommendations. The bill, however, does not appear to be a priority.

Also, while the Press Council of India looks at complaints from the print press, there is no regulatory authority for television. The I&B ministry is in the process of finalising a framework which is also expected to look at sting operations. Till then, anything goes.