Indian laws on obscenity are quite unusual. One set deals with adult pornography and another with child pornography. Watching or keeping porn video content on a mobile or a laptop is legal, but shooting or uploading it on any website, passing it on to someone or selling it violate several legal provisions. In case of child porn, watching child porn or keeping them on a personal device are also prohibited—under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Some experts find the contradictions relating to adult porn baffling. For one, how do you check the circulation of porn content? Two, as even industry insiders say, if consumption is permitted, production and circulation can never be curtailed.
In instances where police arrested people watching porn at late-night parties, courts have quashed the FIR, holding that watching porn within a private space is no offence under Indian laws. Courts have asserted the same about keeping porn content on phones, laptops or in CD form. One such judgment, delivered by the...
