The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Tamil Nadu government to a petition filed by Just Rights for Children Alliance, an NGO coalition, challenging a Madras High Court order that mere downloading and private viewing of child pornography was not an offence.
A Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, issued a notice to the State on the basis of a plea against the High Court quashing the FIR and criminal proceedings against a 28-year-old man. The petitioner, represented by senior advocate H.S. Phoolka, said that the High Court’s observations on January 11 that watching child pornography would not fall within the scope of the Pocso Act, 2012, would have grave consequences.
The plea, filed by the coalition of NGOs fighting child sexual exploitation, child trafficking and child marriage, argued that an impression was given to the general public that downloading and possessing child pornography was not an offence. “It would increase the demand for child pornography and encourage people to involve innocent children in pornography,” the petition said.
The Chennai police had seized the phone of the accused and discovered that he had downloaded and possessed child pornography.
The High Court had quashed the judicial proceedings against the man and held that downloading child pornography was not an offence under Section 67B of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The High Court had categorically said that watching child pornography per se was not an offence as the accused had merely downloaded it on his electronic gadget and watched it in private. The Madras High Court had also referred to a case decided by the Kerala High Court, wherein it was held that watching pornography in private was not an offence under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The petitioners said that there was a glaring increase in child pornography cases in the country – from 44 cases in 2018 to 1,171 cases in 2022 – as per National Crime Records Bureau data.
The court listed the case for April 5.
