The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on an appeal against the Madras High Court’s ruling, which held that downloading and possessing child pornography isn’t a crime.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala reserved the verdict after hearing arguments from the parties.The bench said parties in the case can file written submission by Monday.
The NGOs Just Rights for Children Alliance and Bachpan Bachao Andolan, had filed appeal against the High Court order passed in January which said that mere downloading and watching of child pornography is not an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and Information Technology Act.
The High Court had said that to make out an offence under POCSO Act, a child or children should have been used for pornography purposes. It added that to constitute an offence under IT Act the accused must have published, transmitted and created the material.
On January 11, 2024, the High Court had quashed the FIR and criminal proceedings against a 28-year-old man who had been charged with downloading child pornographic content to his mobile phone.
It had held that downloading and possessing child pornography does not amount to any offence under Section 67B of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
Chennai Police had registered a case against the accused under Sections 67 B of the IT Act and 14(1) of the POCSO Act after they seized the phone of the accused and discovered that he had downloaded and possessed child pornography.