Karnataka High Court
The Karnataka High Court has withdrawn its recent order, which held that mere viewing of child pornography does not constitute an offence under the Information Technology Act. A single bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna withdrew the order, saying that the court had misinterpreted Section 67B while passing the order on Thursday. The court stated that we are also human beings and we make mistakes. There is always a chance to improve. An inquiry will be conducted in this regard and a fresh order will be issued. This order stands cancelled.
What did the court say about the decision?
The court also said that the order was issued under Section 67B (A) of the Information Technology Act after the state government filed a petition in this regard. Section 67B of the Information Technology Act states that creation, collection, search, browsing, downloading, advertising, transmission, sharing or distribution of text or digital images depicting children in an obscene or indecent manner is under investigation under this section.
The accused received relief
Earlier, the High Court had said that mere viewing of child pornography does not constitute an offence under the provisions of the Information Technology Act. This decision of the High Court had given relief to the person accused of viewing a website containing child pornography for 50 minutes. In March 2022, a complaint was filed against the petitioner under Section 67B (publication or transmission of material relating to children) of the Information Technology Act. The petitioner’s counsel argued that Section 67B cannot be applied in such a case as his client had only viewed the website and had not transmitted anything.
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