A senior additional sessions judge of the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi has been suspended after a video circulated widely on social media purportedly showed him in an intimate position with a female court employee in his official chamber.

Delhi High Court Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma consulted a few senior colleagues and took the “administrative” decision to suspend the judge and the female staffer working with him, pending their explanations, sources told The Telegraph on Thursday.

The possibility of the judge being dismissed is not ruled out. Judicial officers requested that the name of the judge, who deals with anti-corruption and CBI cases, or the woman not be revealed.

On Wednesday evening, the single-judge Delhi High Court bench of Justice Yashwant Varma directed Google, WhatsApp, YouTube and Twitter to prevent their platforms being used to circulate the video, said to have explicit sexual content.

The court also directed the Union ministry for electronics and information and technology to take all steps to prevent online circulation of the video, shot apparently on March 9 and circulated widely since Tuesday.

The order came on an application from the female court employee who sought an injunction against the circulation of the video.

Justice Varma passed the order ex-parte, without any formal notices to the online platforms in view of the sensitivities involved, and through in-camera proceedings at his chambers.

The court also allowed the female staffer’s plea that her identity be kept secret during the proceedings.

Justice Varma’s order, uploaded late on Wednesday night, said: “This application has been filed seeking concealment of the identity of the plaintiff and to conduct the hearing of the present suit in camera/ chamber.... The prayer to the extent of masking and pseudonymisation of the name and other particulars of the plaintiff is allowed.”

It said the plaintiff would be allowed to sue the four online platforms concerned as well as the Union electronics and IT ministry if the injunction on the circulation of the video was violated.

“This suit has been taken on urgent mentioning and in light of the imminent and irreparable harm that is likely to be caused to the plaintiff. The suit seeks issuance of a permanent injunction restraining the defendants (the four online platforms), their associates, sister concerns, agents and others from publishing/ re-publishing/ telecasting, in any manner, a purported video dated 09 March 2022 which is stated to be circulating on various social media platforms as well as web portals since 29 November 2022,” the high court said.

“Further prayers are made for disabling the users of the services provided by the (four platforms) from sharing or forwarding the video in question over their platforms. The registrar-general has also... requested defendant No. 5 (Union electronics and IT ministry) to issue appropriate take-down orders.”