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Supreme Court on Child Pornography Verdict: In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court has held downloading or viewing child pornography a crime under POCSO. A bench of Chief Justice of India Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala struck down the Madras High Court verdict on child pornography, which said that downloading and viewing child pornographic videos is not a crime.
Instructions not to use the word 'child pornography'
The Supreme Court said that to prove such videos as a crime under Section 15(3) of the POCSO Act, it would have to be proved that the video was stored for any benefit. The court suggested to the Parliament to replace the term 'child pornography' with 'child sexual abuse-abusive material'. The government has been appealed to bring an ordinance for this amendment. Apart from this, the Supreme Court has directed all the courts not to use the term 'child pornography'.
Challenge to Madras Court's decision
It is worth noting that on 13 September 2023, the Kerala High Court had given a verdict in the child pornography case that if a person is watching pornographic pictures or videos in private, then it is not a crime, but showing those videos to others is a crime. Giving this statement, the Madras High Court acquitted an accused. After this, an NGO challenged the decision and approached the Supreme Court.