Commercial exploitation: Bombay High Court notices to Centre, 4 states for 'illegal' use of woman's picture

The Bombay High Court has termed the use of a womans image without her consent in government advertisements as commercial exploitation and quite serious considering the contemporary electronic era and social mediaTaking note of a petition filed by Namrata Ankush Kawale a division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Advait Sethna issued notices to the Central government four state governments Congress Party and a USbased company and posted the matter on March 24In her petition Kawale alleged that her image was clicked by a local photographer Tukaram Karve an acquaintance and illegally uploaded to the website ShutterstockSubsequently the photo was used unlawfully by four state governments and the Union Ministry of Rural Development as well as some private companies in advertisements and public displaysThe High Court addressed the seriousness of the matter in its order on March 10 saying that the issues raised in Kawales plea were pertinent to the current electronic and social media landscapeThe issues raised in the plea were quite serious considering the contemporary times of an electronic era and social media Prima facie it appears to be a commercial exploitation of the petitioners photograph the Bombay High Court saidThis is alleged to have happened completely without the woman even being informed about the same it addedThe bench issued a notice to Shutterstock a USbased company that hosts a website with royaltyfree stock photographs and various state governments including Maharashtra Karnataka Telangana and OdishaThe notice was also issued to the Telangana Congress the Union Ministry of Rural Development and a private entity Total Dental Care Pvt Ltd which had used the petitioners photographIt sought affidavits from all the respondentsThe Bombay High Court said the present case brings to the fore a serious issue about the unauthorised use of womans photograph by various political parties and state governments in advertising their schemesThe woman in her plea termed as extremely alarming such a breach of her privacy and illegality which ought not to have taken place from responsible governments who are supposed to adhere to the lawAs per the woman one Tukaram Karve a photographer from her village had taken her picture and uploaded it without her consent on the Shutterstock websiteThe governments of Maharashtra Telangana Odisha and Karnataka the Union Ministry of Rural Development and some private entities have used her photograph from the website without her consent for their advertisements and hoardings she claimedThe woman further said that the governments illegal use of her photograph was a breach of her fundamental rightsShe sought direction to the respondents to be permanently restrained from using her photograph on their websites social media platforms advertisements and promotionsWith inputs from PTI