The Supreme Court of India on Friday made the decision to hold off on the charm of a lower court’s ruling, which stated that while creating child pornography, downloading and viewing it is still illegitimate.
The Supreme Court invited children’s right advocates to send written explanations for further consideration.
The Madras High Court in southeastern India, which dismissed legal claims against a 28-year-old man accused of downloading child pornography on his mobile phone in 2019, fought an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Madras court said India’s Information Technology Act of 2000 allows criminal charges against a person who has “published, transmitted, and created material depicting children in sexually explicit act or conduct, ” but a “careful reading of this provision does not make watching child pornography, per se, an offense. ”
The court also found that the 2012 Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act of India made using children to produce pornographic material illegal but did not provide for the punishment of watching it, as long as the accused did no further spread the porn. The defendant in the case asserted that his phone automatically downloaded the offensive material and did n’t forward it to anyone.
The defendant’s behavior can only be seen as moral degradation because he has never used a child or children for sexual purposes, the Madras prosecutor said.
The jury added that it was concerned about the consequences of kids watching or watching porn and that they should be counseled rather than punished:
Instead of condemning and punishing Generation Z children, society must be mature enough to adequately counsel and educate them and attempt to help them overcome that addiction. Since exposure to adult material begins at that period, the training must begin at the college level.
The Just Rights for Children Alliance of Faridabad and the Bachpan Bachao Andolan Association of New Delhi, two non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ), were called by the Indian Supreme Court in the early months of March to denounce the Madras decision as being “atrocious.” filed an appeal.
But, the Supreme Court greatly agreed with the Madras High Court’s logic on Friday. The Supreme Court further stated that recipients of child pornography via email if immediately remove it from their products and face criminal penalties if they do thus. Since it has reserved its decision, its remarks from Friday do not constitute a final decision on the issue.
The Supreme Court granted the legislative body established in 2005, India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR ), the right to send written explanations for consideration.
According to NCPCR Senior Advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi, ignorance may be a security in such cases because there is a notion of guilt under the POCSO Act.
