Folks, porn is here to stay. At least it seems so for now.
The Supreme Court of India has cited Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which deals with Right to Personal Liberty, and outrightly refused to place a ban on erotic content on the Internet.
Such interim orders cannot be passed by this court. Somebody can come to the court and say ‘Look, I am an adult 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) of the Constitution.
— H L Dattu, Chief Justice of India
Justice Dattu was heading a three-judge Bench looking into the matter, and has asked the Union Home Ministry to file a detailed affidavit within four weeks.
Porn Causes Crimes?
The remarks were made in response to a PIL filed by Advocate Kamlesh Vaswani whose lawyer, Vijay Panjwani pressed for an interim order to block all porn sites till the Home Ministry took a clear stand on the matter.
Panjwani also argued that crimes “majorly influenced” by porn videos were on the rise and despite being repeated directed the MHA had failed to even file an affidavit in said regard.
The sexual content that kids are accessing today is far more graphic, violent, brutal, deviant and destructive and has put entire society in danger, so also safety threats to public order in India. The petitioner most respectfully submits that most of the offences committed against women/girls/children are fuelled by pornography. The worrying issue is the severity and gravity of the images are increasing. It is a matter of serious concern that pre-pubescent children are being raped.
— Vaswani’s petition
The petition also pointed out that there are 4 crore porn sites in India and submitted to the court that the absence of internet laws encouraged people to watch porn videos and said that the Centre had failed to devise mechanism to block such sites.
We’ll find out more in four weeks once the Union Home Ministry files their affidavit.
(With Inputs from PTI)
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