Karnataka HC revisits ruling on child pornography case, allows further investigation

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has retracted its July 10 order that had previously ruled that an individual viewing child pornography online could not be prosecuted under Section 67B of the Information Technology Act.

The revision came after the court’s single judge bench, led by Justice M Nagaprasanna, on Friday acknowledged an oversight regarding Section 67B(b) of the Act.

Initially, the court had dismissed charges against Inayathulla N, arguing that merely accessing pornographic content did not constitute “publishing or transmitting material,” a requirement under Section 67B.

However, upon a recall application filed by the state government, the court realised that its earlier ruling had neglected Section 67B(b).

This section stipulates that creating, collecting, seeking, browsing, downloading, advertising, promoting, exchanging, or distributing material that depicts children in an obscene or sexually explicit manner falls under the purview of Section 67B.

The court stated, “Section 67B(b) is relevant to this case,” and concluded that the initial ruling had erred by not considering this provision, leading to an improper annulment of the proceedings.

The court rejected arguments from the petitioner’s counsel, who claimed that the recall was barred by Section 362 of the CrPC.

Instead, the court maintained that its inherent powers under Section 482 of the CrPC allowed for such a revision.

Emphasising the human fallibility of judges, the court noted, “Judges are also humans, and infallibility is not known to humanity.” The court then permitted further investigation into the case and annulled its previous order that had quashed the proceedings.