Supreme Court says watching, storing child pornography offences under Pocso Act

Downloading, watching and storing child pornography is punishable under the Pocso Act, the Supreme Court ruled, setting aside a Madras High Court order, which had said that watching such content is not an offence.

In Short

• Supreme Court says downloading child porn is a punishable offence
• Overturns court order that nixed case against man charged for watching child porn
• Asks Centre to bring law to replace 'child pornography' term

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that downloading, storing and watching child pornography is an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and set aside a Madras High Court order, which had said that downloading and viewing such content is not punishable.

On January 11, the Madras High Court had cancelled the criminal proceedings against a man named S Harish (28) from Chennai who was charged with downloading pornographic content involving children on his mobile phone.

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala today said the Madras High Court committed an egregious error in passing the judgment.

The Supreme Court restored the criminal proceedings against the Chennai man and stated that publishing and sharing child pornographic content was already an offence, apart from creating and downloading such material.

It asked the central government to bring in an amendment to replace the word 'child pornography' with 'child sexually abusive and exploitative material'. It also directed other courts not to use the word 'child pornography' in any of its orders.

In March, the Supreme Court had questioned the Madras High Court's judgment, terming it "atrocious". "This (the high court judgment) is atrocious. How can the single judge say this?," CJI Chandrachud had said. The court reserved its order in April.

While cancelling the FIR and criminal proceedings against the Chennai man who watched child porn, The Madras 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.

Monday's Supreme Court ruling came after it heard a plea filed by Just Rights for Children Alliance, a coalition of NGOs, which was represented by senior advocate HS Phoolka.

The petitioner approached the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court's order, stating that this would encourage child pornography and go against the well-being of children.

"The impression is given to the general public that downloading and possessing child pornography is not an offence, which would increase the demand for child pornography and encourage people to involve innocent children in pornography," the plea stated.

(with inputs from PTI)