New Delhi: The Top Court on Monday overturned the Madras High Court order that downloading and watching child pornography is not an offence, and ruled that mere storage of such material is a crime under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act).
"The HC committed an error in its order and thus we set aside the HC order and we remit the matter back to the sessions court," said Justice JB Pardiwala, according to Bar and Bench.
POCSO must be amended
The Apex Court, in its order, suggested that Parliament must bring a law amending the POCSO Act to replace the term "child pornography" with "Child Sexual Exploitative and Abusive Material".
This decision was taken by a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala after hearing the petition of NGO Just Right for Children Alliance. This NGO had filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the decision of the Madras High Court.
Madras HC Verdict
Earlier, the Madras High Court did not consider it a crime under the POCSO Act and the IT Act. The Madras High Court had said that downloading and viewing child pornography is not a crime. The High Court had said that downloading or viewing child pornography on one's personal electronic device is not a crime. (with Agency inputs)
