Centre Gets Two Weeks to Suggest Ways to Ban Child Porn on Internet
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday gave time to the government to suggest ways to ban child pornography and took on record the Centre’s earlier direction to internet service providers to block porn sites. “In pursuance to our earlier order, some suggestions have been filed. The Centre has sought two weeks time to file its suggestions. Put up the matter for further hearing in the week commencing from April 18,” a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said.
Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, said due to holidays, the meeting of the departments concerned could not be held and sought two weeks to file suggestions on the issue of banning child pornography. The bench took on record the suggestions given by advocate Vijay Panjwani, appearing on behalf of petitioner Kamlesh Vaswani, to block pornographic sites, especially those containing child pornography. Panjwani also placed on record the government’s 2015 order in which internet service providers were directed to block websites with pornographic content, submitting that similar steps were required to ban such websites containing child pornographic materials. The court on February 26 asked the government to suggest ways to ban child pornography saying the nation couldn’t afford to carry on any experiment in the name of liberty or freedom of speech and expression.