In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that downloading and watching child pornography is an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala set aside the Madras High Court order that had ruled that merely downloading and watching child pornography was not an offence under POCSO Act and Information Technology (IT) Act and noted that the high court had committed an “egregious error” in passing the judgment.
The Madras High Court’s order had come on January 11 in a case in which a 28-year-old man was charged with downloading child pornography on his phone. The court had quashed the criminal proceedings against the man and said children these days are grappling with the serious issue of watching pornography and society must be mature enough to educate them instead of punishing them.
The Supreme Court today restored the criminal proceedings against the man.
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While pronouncing the judgment, the bench stated, “We have suggested to the Parliament to bring an amendment to POCSO… so that definition of child pornography can be referred to as child sexually abusive and exploitative material, We have suggested an ordinance can be brought in. We have asked all courts not to refer to child pornography in any order,” Bar and Bench reported.
The bench also laid down certain guidelines on child pornography and its legal consequences.
The Supreme Court had taken note of the submissions made in the matter by senior advocate H S Phoolka, who represented two petitioner organisations, that the high court verdict was contrary to the laws in this regard.
The senior lawyer appeared in the court on behalf of NGOs Just Rights for Children Alliance, based in Faridabad, and the New Delhi-based Bachpan Bachao Andolan. The organisations work for the welfare of children.