Taking suo motu cognisance of media reports on the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl at a boarding school in Dehradun, the Uttarakhand high court on Thursday stressed that “unlimited access to pornographic sites should be curbed to avoid adverse influence on the impressionable minds of children”.
“Children are not safe even in educational institutions... They are sexually abused, exploited and assaulted... as per reports, these boys watched porn movies and called the minor girl to the storeroom where she was sexually assaulted,” the court said.
The court also directed the Centre to suspend the licences of those internet service providers under Section 25 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, if they don’t comply with the July 31, 2015 notification. The notification listed over 800 websites and directed internet service providers to block access to them as the contents posted on these websites “infringed morality and decency”.
Issuing a slew of mandatory directions, the high court ruled that all the internet service licence holders be directed to obey the notification dated July 31, 2015 to “block the publication or transmission of obscene material in any electronic form, transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act or conduct and also publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act or conduct forthwith”.
“Though the directions were issued to all the internet service licence holders, till date, all the intermediaries have not followed the same in letter and spirit. The sites are readily available to children to view obscene and indecent acts, including pornography,” the court said.
{{/usCountry}}“Though the directions were issued to all the internet service licence holders, till date, all the intermediaries have not followed the same in letter and spirit. The sites are readily available to children to view obscene and indecent acts, including pornography,” the court said.
{{/usCountry}}Clarifying that it was expected from all the internet service licence holders that they would block these sites to protect the children of impressionable age, the order said: “The psyche of the children of impressionable age is also affected, which, at times, results in committing crimes. The entire society, including parents, teachers, and school management, is responsible to safeguard the interest of the children.”
The court also directed the state government to ensure completion of the inquiry and investigation in the alleged gang rape within eight weeks. The directives were issued by division bench of acting chief justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari. The next hearing in the case will be on October 11.
Counter affidavit(s) can be filed on or before the next hearing, the court said: “The management, instead of taking prompt action against the culprits, tried to hush up the matter. It is with great difficulty that an FIR was registered against four students and the school management.”