New Delhi: The Supreme Court today said that downloading and watching sexually abusive material involving child is an offence under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
The bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala set aside the Madras High Court order that had ruled that merely downloading and watching child pornography was not an offence under POCSO Act. The Supreme Court noted that the high court had committed an "egregious error" in passing the judgment.
The SC suggested Parliament to bring a law amending the POCSO Act to replace the term "child pornography" with "Child Sexual Exploitative and Abusive Material".
Pending enactment of the amendment, the Union government can bring in an Ordinance to this effect, said the Supreme Court and directed all courts not to use the term "child pornography".
What Was Madras HC Order
The Supreme Court was delivering its judgment on a plea challenging a ruling through which the Madras high court held that ‘only watching child porn’ is not an offence under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) and the Information Technology (IT) acts.
In January 11, the Madras High Court had cancelled criminal proceedings against a 28-year-old man from Chennai charged with downloading and viewing child pornography, observing that watching such explicit content in private would not fall within the scope of the POCSO Act.
The Supreme Court today restored the criminal proceedings against the man.