Watching child porn a crime under POCSO Act? SC to decide today

The Supreme Court will pronounce on Monday, 23 September its verdict on a plea challenging a Madras High Court ruling that watching child pornography in private would not fall within the scope of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

As per the causelist published on the website of the apex court, the judgment, authored by Justice J.B. Pardiwala, will be pronounced on 23 September.

In March this year, CJI D.Y. Chandrachud-led Bench issued a notice on the plea challenging the Madras High Court order which had held that downloading and possessing child pornography does not amount to any offence.

The Madras High Court in its impugned judgment had quashed the FIR and criminal proceedings against a 28-year-old Chennai man, holding that watching child pornography in private would not fall within the scope of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

A bench of Justice N. Anand Venkatesh reasoned that the accused had merely downloaded the material and watched the pornography in privacy and it was neither published nor transmitted to others.

"Since he has not used a child or children for pornographic purposes, at best, it can only be construed as a moral decay on the part of the accused person."

The Chennai police registered an FIR under Sections 67 B of the Information Technology Act and Section 14(1) of the POCSO Act after it seized the phone of the accused and discovered that he had downloaded and possessed child pornography.

In India, both the POCSO Act 2012 and the IT Act 2000, along with other laws, criminalise the creation, distribution, and possession of child pornography.