Concerned with the Centre’s preference for regulating content on radio and television and not pornographic websites, particularly those featuring child pornography, the Supreme Court on Monday said it could consider increasing the I&B Ministry’s mandate in this regard. The bench headed by Justice BS Chauhan hinted at setting up a dedicated department for the purpose even as it gave three weeks to the Department of Telecom (DoT) to respond on possibilities to block websites displaying such content.
The Court order came on a submission made by Centre’s counsel Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising who said that the DoT was chiefly concerned with regulation of content on radio and television and not websites. “No problem, we can increase the department,” the bench shot back. This was the second time around that the Centre skirted the issue after a PIl filed by a lawyer Kamlesh Vaswani raised pitch to block websites featuring child pornography. The Centre earlier told SC that to block international porn sites in the country was a difficult task on which various ministries had to be consulted.
In the past, Centre took many adjournments which irked the Court. Treating the matter “serious” the bench had requested Centre to come out with methods to block these websites as watching obscene videos not only contributed to crimes against women. Petitioner’s counsel Vijay Panjwani pointed out that over 20 crore porn videos or clippings are available free in the market. “Most offences committed against women/girls/children are fuelled by pornography. The worrying issue is that the severity and gravity of such images is increasing. It is a matter of serious concern that prepubescent children are being raped,” the petition said.