CYBER GENDER VIOLENCE AND CONSTITUTIONAL MORALITY: A LEGAL ANALYSIS OF ONLINE HARMS AGAINST WOMEN

In addition to redefining social interaction, communication, and information access, the digital revolution has also given rise to a new frontier of gendered violence. The rise of cyber gender violence, which includes online defamation, trolling, image-based sexual abuse, and cyberstalking, illustrates how patriarchal oppression has spread online. The internet, which was once thought of as an emancipatory space, now perpetuates structural injustices that jeopardise women's autonomy, privacy, and dignity. Such harms violate the rights to equality under Article 14, non-discrimination under Article 15(3), and life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Both state and non-state actors must uphold the moral principles of equality, fraternity, and individual dignity enshrined in the Constitution, according to the theory of constitutional morality as expressed in progressive jurisprudence. _x000D_ Through the prism of constitutional morality, this study conducts a doctrinal and analytical investigation of cyber gender violence. It assesses the effectiveness of Indian legal tools, such as the Information Technology Act of 2000 and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita of 2023, and looks at how digital victimisation and online harassment violate fundamental rights. Additionally, it makes use of comparative analysis from international agreements like the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The study makes the case for a constitutionalised approach to cyber jurisprudence, which sees online harms as breaches of the constitutional promise of dignity rather than just statutory violations. _x000D_ In the end, the study argues that the structural failure to translate constitutional values into the digital sphere is what constitutes cyber gender violence. In order to address this, India's cyber law system needs to develop into a framework based on constitutional morality, making sure that human dignity and gender justice are not subordinated to technological advancement.