HC orders removal of woman-child AIDS campaign posters

The Madras High Court today ordered removal of photographs of a 25-year-old woman and her four-year-old daughter from AIDS awareness campaign banners across Tamil Nadu within a week, after she complained that they gave an impression as if the two were HIV affected.
 
Justice K Suguna recorded an undertaking by the Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Society on removing the posters of the woman who said that her family came close to being ostracised by relatives and neighbours after the publication of the photos as part of the campaign two years ago.
 
The woman has also sought a public apology and a compensation of Rs one crore from the AIDS control society. Suguna also directed the counsels for the petitioner, DS Rajasekar and G Mohanakrishnan, to implead Sasi Advertising Agency, entrusted with erecting the banners and displaying the advertisement, in the case.
 
Counsel for the AIDS Control Society, R Rathnatara, submitted that Sasi Advertising Agency, which was given the Rs92,000 contract, had purchased the photographs of the woman and the child from a copyright owner of a website.
 
However, the petitioner's counsels submitted that someone had videographed the woman and her child at a polio vaccine camp and "misused" the same.