November 2025

NCW seeks review of laggard laws as women face more AI-driven abuse

Written to MHA, MEITy, MoW&CD

The NCW shared a press release 4 November, saying it has written to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Electronics & Information Technology and the Ministry of Women and Child Development, recommending the review of cyber-related laws relating to women.

Outdated IT act, 2000

“We don’t even have the terminology for deepfakes or synthetic media in our laws. The IT Act, 2000, is nearly 25 years old, and what we have is a patchwork stitched together to fit new digital crimes.

BNS not addressing morphing or AI generated issues

Even the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita is old wine in a new bottle—it repeats offences like defamation or voyeurism without addressing how AI-generated likenesses and morphing actually operate.”

NCRB reports

India witnessed a 31.2 percent surge in cybercrime cases, rising from 65,893 in 2022 to 86,420 in 2023 - NCRB's report.

The majority of these offences involved online fraud, extortion, and sexual exploitation.

Chhattisgarh - 36% rise

Chhattisgarh recorded a 36 percent rise, nearly one-fifth of which were linked to online harassment, cyberstalking, or the circulation of obscene material, underscoring the growing vulnerability of women in India’s digital spaces.

Girija Oak

Recently, actor Girija Oak spoke of how her AI-generated images have been circulating online.

Aishwarya Rai

Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan moved the Delhi High Court over unauthorised use of her likeness in AI-generated and morphed content. In its order on 9 September, the court observed that such misuse infringes an individual’s personality rights, including their name, image, and likeness, when done without consent, recognising it as a violation of privacy and dignity.

Proposals by the NCW

New section in BNS, 2023

The commission has proposed a new section in the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, to cover ‘modified content’ to include the creation, modification, or distribution of digitally created or altered images, videos, or audio that falsely depict any person in an “explicit, defamatory, or misleading manner”.

IT Rules, 2021

Updates to the IT Rules, 2021, mandating account verification, recognising AI-manipulated images, defining gender-based harassment, and ensuring platform transparency through AI audits.

DPDP Act, 2023

proposed amendments to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, mandating the takedown of non-consensual content within 12 hours and introducing graded penalties for gender-based data misuse.

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Extent and Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013

To strengthen workplace safety, the commission has suggested expanding the scope of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, extent and Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, to explicitly include cases of digital harassment and misconduct in remote work environments.

POCSO Act, 2012

proposes amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, to recognise online grooming and digital image manipulation as punishable offences, while making social media platforms liable for failing to report such abuse.

Judgement

Kamya Buch c JIX5A & Ors case - Delhi HC

In the Kamya Buch v. JIX5A & Ors case, the Delhi High Court in July 2025 described the circulation of explicit, AI-manipulated images of the petitioner as a “patent breach” of her privacy and dignity under Article 21 (right to liberty), and granted interim injunction and other significant relief to Buch.

Buch was targeted by a large-scale harassment campaign using AI-generated deepfakes, morphed images and pornographic content.

The court restrained the defendants, including anonymous users, pornographic websites and major intermediaries from publishing the content and directed the prompt takedown and de-indexing of the offending URLs. The order drew on established privacy principles laid down in the Puttaswamy ruling. Print