The Supreme Court declared on Monday that the mere storage of child pornography is illegal under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act), overturning the Madras High Court’s ruling that downloading and viewing the material is not illegal.
According to Bar and Bench, Justice JB Pardiwala stated, “We set aside the HC order and remitted the matter back to the Sessions Court. The HC committed an error in its order.”
The Supreme Court recommended in its decision that Parliament pass legislation changing the POCSO Act so that “Child Sexual Exploitative and Abusive Material” is used in place of the phrase “child pornography.”.
The court noted that the central government may introduce an ordinance until the legislation is passed.
Additionally, the court mandated that the word “child pornography” not be used in any court.
“We have proposed to the parliament to amend POCSO, allowing for the definition of child pornography to be changed to include child sexual abuse and exploitation. We have proposed the introduction of an ordinance. We have requested that no court mention child pornography in any of their orders,” he stated.
The Supreme Court granted permission to consider the appeal against the high court decision that the Information Technology (IT) Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act did not criminalise the act of downloading and viewing child pornography.
The Supreme Court noted this in dismissing charges against a 28-year-old man for allegedly downloading child-orientated pornography onto his cell phone.
The high court further stated that rather than penalising kids for seeing porn, society should be “mature enough” to teach them about the dire consequences of doing so.