SC rules downloading, watching child porn an offence; lays down guidelines, legal consequences

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that downloading and watching child pornography is an offence under the POCSO and IT laws. It has recommended that Parliament enact an ordinance to redefine "child pornography" as "child sexually abusive and exploitative material."

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".


"We have said about lingering impact of child pornography on victimisation and abuse of children and on role to report an offence, including role of society and stakeholders...We have suggested to Parliament to bring an amendment to POCSO... so that definition of child pornography can be referred to as 'child sexually abusive and exploitative material'. We have suggested an Ordinance can be brought in," the bench said.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra pronounced the verdict.

Madrac HC ruling

The apex court bench was hearing a plea against a Madras HC ruling that watching child porn not POCSO offence.

In its ruling on Monday, the SC reinstated the criminal proceedings in the case, stating that the high court had made an error in dismissing it. The bench further ordered that the sessions court will now revisit the case from the beginning.


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.

The senior lawyer represented the NGOs Just Rights for Children Alliance, based in Faridabad, and Bachpan Bachao Andolan, located in New Delhi. Both organisations focus on promoting the welfare of children.