The Supreme Court docket on Tuesday issued discover to the Centre, the States, and social media platforms X and Meta, on a petition searching for instructions to forestall police from importing on social media images and movies that reveal the identities of accused individuals or depict them in a dehumanising method.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana heard the petition. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appeared for the petitioner.
The petition seeks instructions to the States to instantly take down posts revealed on official police social media accounts that reveal the faces or identities of accused individuals or painting them in degrading or humiliating circumstances. The examples cited embrace photographs of accused individuals being handcuffed, tied with ropes, overwhelmed with sticks, made to kneel, dragged or pulled down stairs.
The petitioner has additionally sought instructions to the States to border complete pointers governing using social media by police organisations, significantly to make sure that such content material isn’t uploaded sooner or later.
An additional prayer has been made in opposition to Meta-owned platforms Instagram and Fb, searching for acceptable insurance policies and person pointers to forestall the posting of content material that identifies individuals accused of offences or depicts them being subjected to inhuman, derogatory or dehumanising remedy. The petition additionally seeks a proper and clear mechanism for the immediate removing of such content material when reported by customers.
The current petition comes after an earlier plea filed by the identical petitioner in regards to the publication of photographs of accused individuals by police on official social media accounts was disposed of by the Supreme Court docket in March this 12 months.
Within the earlier proceedings, the Court docket had famous that directions issued in a separate case concerning police media briefings might doubtlessly cowl social media postings as nicely. The petitioner had thereafter withdrawn the plea, with liberty to method the Court docket with a recent and broader petition.
The petition was filed by way of Advocate-on-Report Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj.
Case Particulars: HEMENDRA PATEL Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS | Diary No. 32704/2026
