New Delhi, April 21
The Supreme Court today directed the Department of Telecom to file an affidavit within a week stating whether it had the power to block pornographic websites, particularly those featuring children.

A Bench comprising Justices SB Chauhan and J Chelameswar passed the order after Additional Solicitor General PP Malhotra pleaded for the dismissal of a PIL objecting to easy availability of porn on the internet. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that it was difficult to block international porn sites.

“We don’t except this kind of argument. You are a mighty government. You issue the direction for blocking these sites, or else, we have to issue the direction, though it is not the court’s job to run the administration. When the problem of pornography is brought to your notice, why don’t you take action,” the Bench told the ASG.

The Bench pointed out that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) had told the court that they could block pornographic sites either at the instance of the government or the judiciary. Also, several countries were blocking objectionable sites on the Net on a regular basis. “Why can’t you control and regulate websites,” it asked.

The ASG responded stating, “We don’t know which of them should be blocked.”

Unconvinced, the Bench asked the DoT Secretary to tell the court by April 28, when the PIL would be taken up for further hearing, if he was competent to block porn sites.

Earlier, an association of ISPs had told the court that ISPs did not create, own, promote, modify or edit contents available on the Net.

ISPs were merely authorised service providers who facilitated their customers to access the internet. They were not in a position to block content without the authority of law as this would tantamount to pre-censorship and curtailing the fundamental rights of the customers and as such would expose them to liability under civil laws, the association had contended.

At the same time, there was no definition of pornography. “Would medical or AIDS awareness websites be pornography? Would photographs of Khajuraho be so termed? One man’s pornography is another man’s high art,” the association contended. The petitioner, advocate Kamlesh Vaswani, has sought a ban on websites which had graphic scenes of violence, brutality and deviant and destructive acts accessible to even children and as such posed a threat to public order. “Most offences committed against women, girls and children are fuelled by pornography. ,” the petitioner pleaded.