NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday decided to hear an appeal filed by an NGO, challenging the order of the Kerala High Court which which held that mere downloading of child pornography on one’s mobile phone cannot be considered as an offence under the POCSO Act, 2012 or the Information Technology (IT) Act.While hearing an appeal filed by the NGO, Just Rights for Children Alliance (JRFCA), a three-judge bench of the top court, led by the Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, issued notice and said that the appeal would be considered later.While referring to another case in which the CJI had reserved the verdict on a similar issue, Justice Chandrachud told the petitioner’s council, HS Phoolka, “We have reserved the judgement in (another case) in which the Madras High Court order was being challenged; just wait for it.”The lawyer pointed out that the Kerala High Court’s verdict has erred in deciding the plea. The petitioner thereby had moved the apex court and sought quashing of it.Senior advocate Phoolka appearing for the petitioner, JRFCA, told the SC that the Kerala Police has found that several local children from the age group of 8-10 and 15-16 years were involved in the offending sexual videos.In its verdict, the Kerala HC had held that automatic or accidental downloading of children engaged in sexually explicit act is not an offence under Section 67B (b) of the Information Technology Act or Section 15(2) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act when the evidence showed that there was no specific intent to transmit or distribute the same.
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