The Court clarified that to establish an offence under Section 15(3) of the POCSO Act, it must be demonstrated that the storage of such material was done with the intention of gaining some advantage or benefit.
Moreover, the SC directed all courts not to use the term “child pornography”.
The apex court bench was hearing a on plea against a Madras HC ruling that watching child porn not POCSO offence. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra pronounced the verdict.
In order to constitute an offence under section 67B of the IT Act, an accused must have published, transmitted or created material depicting children in a sexually-explicit act or conduct, the HC bench had said. “A careful reading of this provision does not make watching child pornography, per se, an offence under section 67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000,” the high court had added.
Terming atrocious, the apex court had earlier agreed to hear the plea challenging the high court ruling that has said mere downloading and watching child pornography is not an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Information Technology (IT) Act.On January 11, the Madras High Court quashed the criminal proceedings against a 28-year-old man charged with downloading pornographic content involving children on his mobile phone.The apex court had taken note of the submissions made in the matter by senior advocate H S Phoolka, who represented two petitioner organisations, that the high court verdict was contrary to the laws in this regard.
