'Judges Are Also Humans': Karnataka HC Recalls Order Which Held Watching Child Pornography Not An Offence Under IT Act

"We judges are also humans. Infallibility is not known to humanity since judges are humans, we are also not infallible," a single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna said, adding “This court had passed the order without noticing section 67B (b), it is an error.”

The government had filed an interim application seeking to withdraw the order on the petition filed by N. Inayatullah of Hoskote seeking cancellation of the case registered against him for viewing pornographic images of children.

On July 10, after hearing the petition filed by Inayatullah, Justice Nagaprasanna led bench had ordered to quash it. The court had then pointed out that under Section 67B of the Information Technology Act, a person can be charged with an offence for preparing, publishing or transmitting child pornography material, and that the applicant had watched a pornographic website and not published or transmitted the material, so it was not an offence under Section 67B.

However, a case was registered against the petitioner under Section 67B(b) of the Information Technology Act, which includes searching, viewing, downloading and promoting child pornography on the Internet. Therefore there is no scope for quashing the case against the petitioner under Section 67B(b). Thus, the bench said that it was withdrawing the order.

Background of the case: On March 23, 2023, between 3.30 pm and 4.40 pm, the applicant, Inayatullah, had viewed obscene images of children through his mobile phone. In this regard, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which received information through the portal launched by the central government to prevent sexual violence against women and children, sent a report to the Bangalore Cyber ​​Crime Station of the Bangalore City CID unit.

After verifying this report, the person who checked the obscene video of the children was found to be Inayatulla through Hoskote and a complaint was registered against him under Section 67B(b) of the Information Technology Act, on May 3, 2023, in Bangalore Cyber ​​Crime Police Station. The petitioner had moved the High Court seeking to quash the complaint.