HC orders TN govt to remove AIDS poster

Chennai, Aug 5: The Madras High Court on Wednesday, Aug 5 ruled in support of a housewife, Thilakavathi, who had approached the court for using her and and her infant photographs in hundreds of billboards for AIDS awareness campaign.

The Madras HC ordered the removal of all banners across Tamil Nadu within one week and also said the posters around the state of the mother and daughter must be removed or else it will affect the social status of the family.

The HC added, "The Health department must evolve rules for using pics from the web. The health department must remove all poster of Thilakavathi in a week."

On Tuesday, Aug 4, Thilakavati had filed a petition saying that the ad has caused a mental trauma when the entire neighborhood avoided to speak them. She said, "We are unable to step out of the house without any comments by the people around us. My 4-year-old daughter is kept away even from playing or talking with other children fearing infection. "

She also said, "Even our family began to desert us, thinking that we had the disease after the poster showed up. I even decided to end our lives at one point because of the shame even my character was under doubt."

Now, Thilakavathi and her husband has sued Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSAC) for one crore rupees for causing irreparable mental harassment.

OneIndia News