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Can't Stop People From Watching Porn At Home, Says Supreme Court

Can't Stop People From Watching Porn At Home, Says Supreme Court
TO GO WITH STORY India-society-Internet-pornography BY YASMEEN MOHIUDDIN A picture taken on July 27, 2009 shows an online cartoon of Savita Bhabhi displayed on the screen of a computer at an undisclosed location. In the land of the Kama Sutra, it was the animated escapades of a buxom, sexually liberated married woman that finally proved a taboo too far for the Indian government censors. But Savita Bhabhi, the star of the online cartoon porn strip that titillated up to 60 million visitors monthly until the government asked Internet service providers to block the site in June, lives on in the form of heated debate surrounding her sudden demise. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
TO GO WITH STORY India-society-Internet-pornography BY YASMEEN MOHIUDDIN A picture taken on July 27, 2009 shows an online cartoon of Savita Bhabhi displayed on the screen of a computer at an undisclosed location. In the land of the Kama Sutra, it was the animated escapades of a buxom, sexually liberated married woman that finally proved a taboo too far for the Indian government censors. But Savita Bhabhi, the star of the online cartoon porn strip that titillated up to 60 million visitors monthly until the government asked Internet service providers to block the site in June, lives on in the form of heated debate surrounding her sudden demise. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

There will be no restrictions on watching porn within the confines of your own home, the Supreme Court has said. The apex court declined a plea to pass an interim order to block all porn sites in India.

Hearing a PIL petition filed by advocate Kamlesh Vashwani, Chief Justice H.L. Dattu said: Such interim orders cannot be passed by this court. Somebody may come to the court and say look I am above 18 and how can you stop me from watching it within the four walls of my room. It is a violation of Article 21 [right to personal liberty].

On Wednesday, the government assured the Supreme Court that all possible measures would be taken to block sites that deal with child pornography.

The assurance came after a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu expressed its unhappiness that things have not moved forward and the petitioner in the matter was making all sorts of submissions.

The petitioner had complained that the government is yet to file a response, and the court should step in now and pass some interim order which would take these sites off the Internet. Though the chief justice denied the ban, he acknowledged that the issue is serious.

"You have not blocked the websites. The petitioner is saying so much," the bench, also comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy told Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand.

However, before Anand had joined the proceedings, the counsel for petitioner had made certain remarks against the Secretaries of some concerned Ministries over the issue which was objected to by the bench and junior advocates appearing for the Centre.

"All these are uncalled for," the bench told advocate Vijay Panjwani, who was appearing for Vaswani.

The counsel had made reference about the posting of some photographs of a woman on websites circulated by her estranged husband. He said the matter has been languishing for quite some time but the concerned ministries were not filing responses and counter affidavits.

The government counsels said it was not the Information and Broadcasting Ministry but for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to look into the issue. The bench said no interim order can be passed in the matter which has to be examined after going through the counter-affidavit of the government department.

With inputs from PTI

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.