During the hearing of a petition to ban pornography before the Supreme Court, the discussion suddenly veered to the recent protests by 'Gen Z' in Nepal. The division bench headed by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai said on Monday that the court was not inclined to entertain the petition at this stage. However, the bench added that the matter would be heard again after four weeks. But why did the issue of Nepal's 'Gen Z' protests come up during a hearing on pornography prohibition?
During the hearing, the petitioner contended that pornography is freely accessible on the internet and has a disastrous impact not only on individuals but also on society, especially on the minds of adolescents aged between 13 and 18 years. The petitioner also highlighted the lack of an effective mechanism to block access to pornographic material and called upon the central government to frame a policy in this regard.
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But the division bench headed by the Chief Justice did not agree with this reasoning. CJI Gavai said, “See what happened in Nepal after the ban.”
What happened in Nepal?
In early September, the then Oli government in Nepal imposed a ban on all social media platforms, which led to massive anti-government protests. Thousands of Gen Z protesters demonstrated on the streets of Kathmandu on September 8 and 9.
Confrontations with the police took the lives of 76 people, and eventually, the K.P. Sharma Oli government lost power. But the social media ban was just the tipping point that ignited the uprising: corruption and other scandals had already enraged Gen Z.
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Is watching porn illegal in India? What does the law say?
In India, viewing pornography is not considered a criminal offence. But according to Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, 2000, the production and distribution of pornographic material for commercial purposes becomes a punishable offence. The Indian government has banned thousands of pornographic websites, while earlier this year, at least 25 OTT platforms were also banned for broadcasting obscene content.
