The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has delivered a timely reminder that cybercrime cannot be trivialised as online mischief. Hearing a petition involving the circulation of morphed obscene photographs of an Indian woman living in Singapore, it observed that “a morphed image is not a harmless digital prank. It is a calculated assault on privacy, reputation, and emotional security. The law must, therefore, move with the same speed with which the unlawful content travels.” That observation goes well beyond the facts of the case. It draws a clear line between humour and harassment, between free expression and criminal abuse.

The facts are disturbing. The complainant alleged that a man had digitally altered her photographs into........

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