North News
New Delhi, September 23
In a significant order, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that that storing and watching child pornographic material is an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act while setting aside a Madras High Court judgment in a child pornography case. The Supreme Court set aside the Madras HC judgment, which had stated that merely downloading and viewing child pornography, without any intention to transmit it, was not an offence. The bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, slammed the Madras HC for committing an “egregious error” in quashing criminal proceedings against an accused individual, said the news outlet News 18.
“There must be intention on part of the accused to share such material. To constitute an offence under section 15(2) of POCSO, there must be something more to show that the actual transmission or distribution of such material. Facilitation of such transmission, preparation, set up to enable transmit has to be there. Mens rea has to be found from the storage of such pornographic material. To establish offence under Section 15(3), apart from storage of child pornographic material, it has to be shown that such storage was done to make some gain or advantage,” the SC bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala said, the news outlet FirstPost reported.
Observing that the Madras High Court committed an “egregious error” in quashing the criminal proceedings, the SC set it aside and restored the criminal prosecution, the news outlets said.
