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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

24/09/24 11:35 AM IST

Supreme Court strengthened child pornography law

In News
  • The  Supreme Court recently said that even viewing, possessing, and not reporting such content is punishable under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act regardless of whether it is shared or transmitted further.
Section 15 of POSCO Act
  • The Bench expanded the interpretation of Section 15 of the POCSO Act, which deals with the “Punishment for storage of pornographic material involving child”.
  • Originally, the provision was restricted to cases where a person stored child pornographic material “for commercial purposes”.
  • In 2019, the POCSO Act was amended to introduce three connected offences under Sections 15(1), (2) and (3) with increasing grades of punishment — from fines to a three to five year jail sentence. These punish
  • Any person, who stores or possesses pornographic material in any form involving a child, but fails to delete or destroy or report the same to the designated authority, as may be prescribed, with an intention to share or transmit child pornography;
  • Any person, who stores or possesses pornographic material in any form involving a child for transmitting or propagating or displaying or distributing in any manner at any time except for the purpose of reporting, as may be prescribed, or for use as evidence in court.
  • Any person, who stores or possesses pornographic material in any form involving a child for commercial purpose.
  •  The court said that Section 15 was not limited to punishing the sharing or transmitting of child pornographic material, and could even be used to punish the “intent” to commit such an act.
  • The law in these cases, the court held, punishes “overt steps” taken towards committing a crime and not “the mere thought of committing an offense”.
  • For instance, the court held that a failure to “delete or destroy or report” child pornography would allow the court to “indirectly” infer that the concerned individual intended to share or distribute it under Section 15(1).
Supreme Court ruling
  • The Supreme Court expanded the definition of “possession” in child pornography cases to include cases where the individual may not have physical possession of child pornographic material, but they have “the power to control the material in question and the knowledge of exercise of such control”.
  • The court termed this “constructive possession” and held that “viewing, distributing or displaying” such material would still amount to it being in the accused’s “possession” under Section 15.
  • The court also held that the offence under Section 15 will apply even if the accused does not have physical possession of child pornography at the time when the FIR is filed.
  • Charges can be made if it is established that the accused possessed child pornographic material “at any point”.
  • The court said that if a person “immediately after storing and watching child pornography in his mobile phone deletes the same before an FIR could be registered” could still be found liable under Section 15.
Source- Indian Express

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