Storage now considered an offence under the POCSO Act

The court held that merely storing or possessing pornographic material relating to a child, without actually transmitting or distributing it, is punishable under Section 15 of the POCSO Act.

This means that an offence falling under this provision is an incipient offence, that is to say, it is a preparation for a subsequent offence.

The penalty under Article 15 is subject to the condition that the person in possession of the incriminating material has not removed, destroyed or reported the pornographic material intended to be sent.

Furthermore, the court clarified that Article 15 punishes both the actual transmission, dissemination, display or distribution of child pornography and the facilitation of any of these acts. The manner and intention of storing such pornography must be taken into consideration in determining a penalty under this sub-provision.

Section 15 of the POCSO Act also punishes persons who store child pornography for commercial purposes.

A penalty under this sub-provision is accompanied by the proviso that there must be additional material or circumstances that may indicate that the storage or possession took place with the intention of obtaining financial benefit from it, the court said.

All these conditions are independent of each other. If an offence does not fall under one of these conditions, this does not automatically mean that the offence does not exist at all.

In this regard, the court clarified that viewing, distributing or exhibiting child pornographic material over the internet, without physically possessing the material on a device, also amounts to ‘possession’ within the meaning of Section 15 of the POCSO Act, provided the person exercises an unvarying degree of control over the material.