Rajasthan High Court Imposes One-Year Social Media Ban On POCSO Accused Held For Allegedly Cyber-Stalking Minor

While granting bail to a POCSO accused, Rajasthan High Court imposed a unique condition that bars him from using all kinds of social media platforms for 1 (one) year, for ensuring safety of the victim.

The bench of Justice Ashok Kumar Jain observed that if the accused was found using social media under his own name or any other fictitious name, during this period, the bail order shall be recalled.

For context, the accused-applicant was implicated under BNS and POCSO, in the background of a complaint lodged by the minor victim's father. It was alleged that the applicant was, with a sexual intent, harassing and cyber stalking the victim.

In this relation, the accused was in custody since February 2026, and had filed this bail application. It was argued that the except for the oral statement of the complainant, there was no material submitted against him, and the charge sheet was already filed.

On the contrary, the Public Prosecutor submitted that owing to the harassment and stalking by the accused, the victim was facing difficulty in living in a daily atmosphere, since the applicant's conduct had psychologically endangered her life.

After hearing the contentions, the Court opined that considering the nature of allegations, appropriate conditions were required to be imposed on the accused while granting bail, to ensure safety and well-being of the victim.

In this light, apart from other bail conditions, the Court directed the accused to not contact the victim or her family, and to not reach out to her by any mode of communication including social media platforms.

Further, the Court held, “The petitioner is restrained from using all kind of social media platform like Instagram, Facebook, Snap Chat, Thread, Share Chat etc. for a period of one year and in case it is found that he is using any of the social media platform during said period of one year either in his name or in any fictitious name using his mobile/E-mail ID or a fictitious E-mail ID then the bail order shall be recalled.”

Accordingly, the bail application was disposed of.

Title: R v State of Rajasthan

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 213

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