New Delhi: Taking a dim view of a husband filing intimate photographs of his estranged wife to bolster his matrimonial dispute, the high court has called it a “grave lapse” and cautioned litigants and advocates from indulging in such practices.Though refusing to initiate contempt proceedings against the man and his lawyers at the behest of the wife, the court said filing such photographs, without even taking adequate safeguards such as a sealed cover, undermines privacy and dignity.The court also noted that the wife, in response, had also placed on record certain photographs and videos of the husband to portray him in an unfavourable light.“While the gravity of the two sets of material is not comparable, the larger principle applies viz. matrimonial litigations must not be allowed to degenerate into contests of mutual humiliations through weaponisation of private images and intimate material,” Justice Sachin Dutta noted.The court also warned the lawyers concerned, reminding them that the “zeal to advance a client’s cause in a matrimonial litigation can never justify the sacrifice of the dignity of the opposite party, least of all where the opposite party is a woman and the material in question is of such intimate character.”The court said though filing of the offending photographs was a significant lapse on the part of the husband’s legal team, however, “when being confronted with the same, the respondents did not seek to justify the same.” The high court further requested the family court to consider removing the private photographs submitted earlier from its records and to place them in a sealed cover.
