Bangalore:The Karnataka High Court has set aside its order, issued on July 10, which held that watching pornographic videos of children online does not constitute an offence under Section 67B(b) of the Information Technology Act.
The bench headed by Justice M. Nagaprasanna, which heard the petition, said the order passed on July 10 was defective. The state government had filed an interim application seeking to withdraw the order following a petition filed by N. Inayatullah of Hosakote seeking cancellation of a case registered against him for watching pornographic videos of children.
In its earlier order, the court had mentioned that Section 67B(b) of the Information Technology Act allows a person to be punished for preparing child pornographic material and sharing it through electronic devices. The petitioner has neither created child pornographic material nor shared it with anyone but has only viewed it. Therefore, it does not constitute an offence under Section 67B(b), the court had stated.
During today’s hearing, the court said, “A case has been registered under Section 67B(b) of the Information Technology Act against the applicant. This section covers searching, viewing, downloading and distribution of child pornography on the Internet. Therefore, there is no scope to quash the case against the applicant under Section 67B(b). Therefore, the order is now withdrawn.”
Dismissing Inayatullah’s petition, the court said: “Judges are also human. We are not exempt from mistakes. We have realised the mistake we have made. It is not permissible to continue with this order.”
On 23 March 2023, between 3.30 pm and 4.40 pm, the applicant, Inayatullah, had viewed child pornography on his mobile phone. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which had received information through the portal launched by the central government to prevent sexual violence against women and children, sent a report to the Bengaluru Cyber Crime Station of the Bengaluru City CID unit.
After verifying this report, it was found that the person who watched the obscene video of the children was Inayatullah and a complaint was filed against him under Section 67B(b) of the Information Technology Act on May 3, 2023. However, the petitioner approached the High Court seeking quashing of the complaint.
During the hearing on July 10, the plaintiff’s lawyer said: “The plaintiff is a pornography addict, but he did not prepare any video or share it with anyone. Therefore, the case should be dropped.”
At the time, the prosecution countered, saying that “the petitioner has admitted that he has watched obscene videos of children, which is a violation of the Right to Information Act. Therefore, the investigation should be continued and the petitioner’s application should be dismissed.”
Read more
Karnataka High Court: Viewing child pornography is not a crime under the Information Technology Act
