There has been debate in the past as to whether watching obscene content alone is illegal, is it a right or should there be punishment for it, but the new decision of the Kerala High Court is in the news. Some time ago, the police caught a person watching a porn movie on the roadside and registered a case under section 292 of the IPC. This matter reached the court and the hearing started.
Justice PV Kunhikrishnan of Kerala High Court dismissed all the charges beyond that. In such a situation, the question arose that if there is a provision of punishment for watching obscene content in the country, then why was this done? Debate started on this on social media. Know when and what punishment is there for watching obscene content.
How illegal is watching obscene content?
Supreme Court advocate Ashish Pandey says, there are many laws regarding watching obscene content alone. The most important thing is what kind of content the accused is watching. If an adult accused is alone watching normal pornographic content, which is specifically made for that target group, then there is no provision of any kind of punishment in it, nor is it banned. Some rights related to privacy have been given in the Indian Constitution which cannot be restricted unless it is illegal.
Commenting on the same matter, Justice PV Kunhikrishnan has also said that such a case cannot be brought under the category of crime. This is a matter of personal choice of the citizen. Interfering in this is like interfering in his right to privacy. The court said, there has been a tradition of seeing such things for centuries. In the digital age, humans' access to these things has become easier.
Then which obscene content will be punished?
Advocate Ashish Pandey explains another situation related to this. He says, there is some special kind of obscene content which you cannot watch even in private. For example, if a person is watching child pornography alone, then it is considered a crime and the accused will be punished under the POCSO Act. At the same time, if something wrong happens to a woman or she is raped and you see her even alone, then it comes under the category of crime.
What does IPC section 292 say?
This section says that if pornographic content is sold or distributed then it comes under the category of crime. For example, if you sell it in the form of a CD or share it with someone on WhatsApp, it is a crime. Or if you show it to anyone then there can be punishment.
Section 67 of the IT Act says, creating or sharing it on the internet is prohibited. Violation of the rule can lead to a punishment of 3 years. Sections 67A and 67B are related to child pornography. Which states that watching such content alone is illegal. Apart from this, if such pictures are also found on your phone then it comes under the category of crime. In such a situation, it cannot be argued whether I see him alone or not.
Advocate Ashish Pandey says, creating any kind of obscene content is prohibited. Whether it is related to child pornography or it is made on an incident that happened to a woman. Pressuring any woman to watch obscene content is also a crime. Watching it with a group in a public place and sharing it on social media also comes under the ambit of crime.
Justice gave advice to parents
During the proceedings, Justice PV Kunhikrishnan also gave advice to the parents. He said, parents make their children happy by giving them mobile phones. But they need to be aware of the danger behind it. Allow children to watch news and videos that are important to them in your presence. Who are giving information. Parents need to be alert in case of children below 18 years. Parents should not give phones to please their children.
He said, if children grow up watching obscene content which is easily accessible to them through mobile phones, then its consequences will be far reaching. I leave this to the wisdom of the children's parents.
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