SC To Review Appeal On Whether Downloading Child Porn Is An Offence

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from the NGO Just Rights for Children Alliance. The appeal challenges a Kerala High Court ruling which stated that simply downloading child pornography onto a mobile phone does not constitute an offence under the POCSO Act, 2012, or the Information Technology Act.

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud issued a notice and scheduled the appeal for a later date. Justice Chandrachud referenced another similar case where the court had reserved judgment, advising the petitioner’s lawyer, HS Phoolka, to wait for that decision.

Phoolka argued that the Kerala High Court’s ruling was flawed and sought to have it overturned. He pointed out that the Kerala Police had found local children, aged between 8 and 16, depicted in the illegal videos.

The Kerala High Court had ruled that accidental or automatic downloading of sexually explicit material involving children does not fall under Section 67B(b) of the IT Act or Section 15(2) of the POCSO Act, especially when there is no specific intent to distribute or transmit the content.

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