Child Pornography: SC’s Ladmark Judgement

In a landmark judgement delivered today, the Supreme Court of India stated 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 objected to the judgement passed by the Madras High Court recently stating that merely downloading and watching child pornography was not an offence under the POCSO Act. The bench called the Madras High Court’s judgement an “egregious error”.

Madras High Court delivered this judgement when a 28-year-old man was convicted of downloading child pornography on his phone. The High Court cancelled the criminal proceedings against the accused, saying that merely watching or downloading child pornography doesn’t come under the POCSO Act.

Today, the Supreme Court clarified that according to Section 15 of the POCSO Act, “Any individual who stores any kind pornographic material involving a child and fails to report or destroy it, will be punishable with a fine of not less than five thousand rupees.”

“Repeating the offence will be punishable with a fine of not less than Rs. 10000. If the offence is repeated more than three times, it may lead to three to five years of imprisonment, and if convicted, the imprisonment may increase to seven years,” the section further adds.

Further, DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala passed the judgement saying that it is an offence to watch or download child pornography and called it a “landmark judgement”.