Historic Supreme Court ruling urges Parliament to amend POCSO

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Madras High Court’s verdict that ‘mere viewing of child pornography’ is not an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) and Information Technology (IT) Acts. The high court held that viewing and even merely storing child pornographic material is also an offence under the POCSO.

The court further ruled that the term “child pornography” should not be used and that instead the term “child sexual abuse and exploitation” should be used in courts dealing with such cases.

The Supreme Court also suggested that Parliament bring an amendment to the POCSO Act to define ‘child pornography’ as ‘child sexually abusive and exploitative material’.

“We have suggested that an ordinance may be brought in. We have asked all courts not to refer to child pornography in any order,” Justice JB Pardiwallah said while delivering the verdict.

CJI DY Chandrachud, who was also part of the same bench, said it was a landmark judgment and the first time in the world that the judiciary has gone into such detail on the law on child sexual abuse.

The Madras High Court had said that mere possession of child sexually exploitative material and viewing it is not an offence if there has been no transmission or distribution. But the Supreme Court today took the opposite stand and said that failure to report to the authorities after receiving such material from any source is an offence.