Downloading, watching child porn offence under POCSO says Supreme Court

New Delhi : In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Monday held that watching and downloading child pornography are offences under the POCSO Act and the information technology law. The apex court suggested Parliament consider amending the term 'child pornography' with "child sexually abusive and exploitative material" by bringing changes in law, and asked the courts not to use the term 'child pornography'.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud set aside the Madras High Court ruling that had said mere downloading and watching child pornography was not an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Information Technology (IT) Act. The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, also laid down certain guidelines on child pornography and its legal consequences.

"We have said about the lingering impact of child pornography on victimisation and abuse of children and on the role to report an offence, including the role of society and stakeholders," the bench said. "We have suggested to 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," it said. The top court delivered its verdict on a plea challenging the Madras High Court order. On January 11, the high court had quashed the criminal proceedings against a 28-year-old man charged with downloading pornographic content involving children on his mobile phone. While pronouncing the verdict, the apex court restored the criminal proceedings in the case saying the high court had erred in quashing it.

The bench said the sessions court will now deal with the case afresh. Terming the high court ruling atrocious, the apex court had earlier agreed to hear the plea challenging the high court ruling that had said mere downloading and watching child pornography was not an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Information Technology (IT) Act.

The high court had also said that children these days were grappling with the serious issue of watching pornography and instead of punishing them, the society must be "mature enough" to educate them. 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 thehigh court verdict was contrary to the laws in this regard.