High Court withdrew its order: Karnataka HC has withdrawn its order in which it had said that merely watching child pornography is not a crime under the IT Act. A single bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna has withdrawn this decision. He said that the bench had misread Section 67B while passing the order.
The bench further said, ‘We are also human beings and we can also make mistakes. There is always scope for improvement. An investigation will be conducted regarding this and a new order will be issued. This order is cancelled.
The bench said this on the decision
The bench said, ‘The order has been passed under Section 67B (A) of the IT Act after the state government filed a petition in this regard. Let us tell you that creating, collecting, searching, browsing, downloading, advertising, broadcasting, exchanging text or digital images or depicting children in an obscene, indecent manner comes under Section 67B of the Act.
The accused got relief
The High Court had earlier said, ‘Under the provisions of the IT Act, merely viewing child pornography is not a crime. This decision of the High Court had given relief to the person accused of viewing a website containing child pornography for 50 minutes. A complaint was filed against the petitioner in March 2022 under Section 67B (publishing or transmitting material related to children) of the IT Act. The petitioner’s lawyer had said that Section 67B does not apply in this case because his client has only viewed the website and has not transmitted anything.