Backlash grows against growing porn industry in India.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it cannot pass an interim order to stop adults from watching porn in the confines of his residence as this can be later questioned for breaking into the fundamental right of a person who has the liberty to see anything within the four walls of his room.
Chief Justice HL Dattu said while hearing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that “Such interim orders cannot be passed by this court. Somebody may come to the court and say look I am above 18 and how can you stop me from watching it within the four walls of my room. It is a violation of Article 21 [right to personal liberty].”
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The PIL was filed by advocate Kamlesh Vashwani who requested the court to devise an interim order to blacklist all porn websites in India, after delay from the government to file a response to his petition regarding the same.
Chief Justice Duttu, however, said that the bench consider the growing number of porn websites in India as a serious issue. According to latest figures, there are close to four crore porn websites operating from India.
Chief Justice added, “The issue is definitely serious and some steps need to be taken. The Centre is expected to take a stand…let us see what stand the Centre will take,” and directed the government to give a reply to Vashwani within 4 weeks.
Even though people in India frown hearing the word sex that doesn’t mean that they don’t watch porn. According to a study conducted by India Today close to 47.5 per cent of digitally savvy Indians log on to the porn website from their desktops, while 49.9 percent use their mobile phones.
The government had earlier said it was practically impossible to track and bring down all porn websites in India as many of them are located in foreign servers and have used high-end technologies to mask it from being detected.
The government had informed the court that it was working on an internet security policy and has taken the matter seriously with the Cyber Regulations Advisory Committee.
As of now, watching porn or possessing pornographic material is not an offence in India but distribution and production of the same is an offence under Chapter XI Paragraph 67 of IT Act 2000.
Last month, porn-star turned actress Sunny Leone was accused by a Delhi-based house wife for allegedly circulating porn videos over internet.
The complainant had told the media “This actor is coming here and displaying vulgarity. Bollywood films could earlier be watched with families. Today we cannot see them with our families. When I visited her website I found that it was not fit for viewing. That’s why I lodged this complaint,”
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Want to know the real truth behind this story, read on at http://
safeinternetindia.org/2015/07/11/what-about-9-year-old-kids-watching-porn-lawyer-asks-supreme-court/
Want to know the real truth behind this story, read on at http://
safeinternetindia.org/2015/07/11/what-about-9-year-old-kids-watching-porn-lawyer-asks-supreme-court/