The Supreme Court of India on Monday has sought the Centre's response to a plea on the ban of pornographic sites in the country.
According to reports, the court has asked the ministries of home affairs, information technology and information and broadcasting and the Internet Service Providers Association of India to respond to public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Indore-based advocate Kamlesh Vaswani seeking ban on the sites.
The petition seeking a strong anti-pornography law iterated that though the act of watching porn is not illegal, such sites would lead to crimes and is believed to be one of the reasons for the rise in violence against women and children.
"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," said the petition filed through advocate Vijay Panjwani.
"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 is increasing. It is a matter of serious concern that prepubescent children are being raped."
Though talking about sex is considered taboo in the conservative Indian society, the availability of pornographic images and videos is high.
Referring to the brutal Delhi gang rape incident of 2012, the petitioner stated, "Offenders' minds are mostly fuelled by pornography as the sexual offender or rapist achieve his gratification not from sexual release alone but also from the thrill of domination, control and power."
Although prevention, production and transmission of "obscene material" is prohibited under Indian Penal Code and the IT Act, watching porn is not illegal in India. Currently there is no law which prevents or deems the act of viewing such content as wrong.
