Centre to crack down on Rape Videos: Supreme Court

The Centre was directed by the Supreme Court to crack down on rape videos those are uploaded on social networking sites, especially those involving children.

A bench of Justice MB Lokur and Justice UU Lalit, issuing notice to the Ministries of Information and Broadcasting and Information Technology, said: “The government must crack down on these offenders and take steps to remove these objectionable videos. It’s a very serious matter”.

A public interest litigation ( PIL) filed by an NGO Prajwala was heard by the bench after two rape videos were uploaded on Youtube. Prajwala wants the SC to direct the Centre to maintain a national register that keeps a record of those convicted for sexual crimes, including molestation, stalking and rape.

Founder of Prajwala, Sunita Krishnan said that she has around 90 such videos sent by different people and there was no mechanism to keep a track of them and lodge protest against those behind this.  "The offence of rape was being committed with impunity and the offenders had the audacity to video record the crime and put it in the public domain. This has a negative impact on the criminal justice system," she said. The Telegraph.

It was also pointed out by the court that under the provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, the government can initiate action against the culprits as several videos include child victims.