Supreme Court Calls For Status Report From Union, Internet Intermediaries On Steps Against Child Pornography

The bench of Justice B. R. Gavai and Justice C. T. Ravikumar heard the matter where Aparna Bhat appearing for the Petitioners informed the court that "a portal was created in regards to the issue to enable filing of the complaints in the matter…. the Court had also directed for the parties to sit together and frame guidelines in order to prevent the circulation of such contents". She also informed the court that the portal overtime has expanded and started taking complaints on other issues, diluting the issue of child pornography. The Court was also informed by her that the CBI has also formed a wing to look into the complaints regarding Child Abuse

ASG Aishwarya Bhati informed the Court that "intermediary comprehensive rules have been notified and inputs from all the stakeholders have been taken". She sought permission from the court to file a status report.

Advocate N. S. Nappinai, the amicus curiae in the case, submitted that the report from the government may include the report from the intermediary companies or they may be directed to file a compliance report separately.

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar appearing for Facebook submitted that "we will file compliance report…. The IT rules have been comprehensively framed so nothing survives as it will be covered under the rules." The Amicus Curiae impressed upon the submission that the compliance report be called from the intermediaries.

The Court thus granted time of six weeks to ASG Aishwarya Bhati to furnish status report of the Government and of all the intermediaries along with a short note to the Supreme Court.

The Court was hearing a suo motu petition initiated by the court pursuant to a letter sent by Hyderabad based Prajwala, an anti-trafficking NGO, back in 2015.

The letter was addressed to former Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu and was accompanied by two rape videos in a pen drive. The letter had demanded that the Ministry of Home Affairs tie up with messaging systems and websites to prevent these videos from being uploaded. It had also appealed to the states to introduce special training when it came to cyber-crime issues.

In December 2017, the Court had directed the Union to create a web portal to lodge complaints related to child sex abuse and child pornography.

In Re: Prajwala Letter Dated 18.2.2015 Videos Of Sexual Violence And Recommendations And Anr.vs …… And Ors. - SMW(Crl) 3/2015