A mother-in-law would have never thought that a closed-door tiff with her daughter-in-law would escalate to such a level that it would spill over to cyberspace.

The daughter-in-law uploaded a post on barter website Faida.com that said: "Mother in-law in early sixties, a voice so sweet, it can kill the entire neighbourhood. An excellent food critic, no food you make will ever be good enough. She is a great adviser too, there's always something you can do better!" The post was uploaded under the tagline - Mother in-law in Good condition - and was in exchange for a book on mind peace.

While the post was removed within ten minutes of being uploaded, legal experts say that venting of frustration from a marital discord in the cyberspace can come with some serious legal repercussions.

When contacted, Vipul Paliwal, Co Founder and Spokesperson, Faida.com, said, "We do come across nasty posts but they are removed immediately once it comes under our scanner. However, this is the first time when we experienced a post like this. As we are a small start-up at present, all the posts uploaded on the site are manually screened. We are working on a system where the posts will be screened before they are made public. Once the posts came under our scanner, it was immediately removed."

This is second such case that has come to light after a husband's photo was uploaded on Quikr.com for sale under pets and pet care tab last year. Quikr.com claims to have a team of 100 people who now screen the posts round the clock.

"Our technology team has spent several hours to create some cutting-edge tools that filter wrong or duplicate listings. Posts with unwanted words and that violate our comprehensive listing policy are immediately removed. At different times, the team also reaches out to customers for verification over the phone to crosscheck the authenticity of the listing. If we do come upon a fraudulent listing, we delete it and if needed, also block the user from accessing the site," said Atul Tewari, COO at Quikr.

Ashok Singh (name changed), a resident of Gurgaon, is a victim of such derogatory post, allegedly uploaded by his wife on a social networking site. Singh told Mail Today, "My father is a cancer survivor. Because of his disease he had to undergo a face surgery. After his surgery, my wife morphed his face and modified it into a dog. She uploaded that image on the social networking site and publicly insulted him."

Similarly, in 2013, a 25-year-old woman software engineer and her father were arrested by cyber officials from Chennai for allegedly morphing her husband's picture to show him in a compromising position, particularly with his mother and sister, and posting the same on social networking sites. She morphed the photos after her husband had filed for a divorce.

Legal experts say highlighting of marital discord in public sometimes amount to cruelty and has become an important ground for divorce and breach of privacy.

"If the photo is morphed without the permission of the person involved, Section 66C of the IT Act, 2000, would apply under which an imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to one lakh can be imposed. If the picture has nudity, then Section 67 of The IT Act, 2000, would apply which can result in an imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of five lakhs, if found guilty. Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code can also be imposed for defamation. Once such post comes under the scanner of these e-commerce sites, the onus is on them to remove such posts within 36 hours after which a criminal action can also be taken against them," said Prashant Mali, advocate and Cyber Law expert.