Watching porn on mobile: Kerala HC highlights importance of mother cooked meals, outdoor sports [Read Order]

NEW DELHI: Highlighting importance of outdoor sports like football and cricket, and "mesmerising smell" of home cooked food by mothers, the Kerala High Court has advised parents not to gift mobile phones to their children as it quashed a criminal case against a man for watching porn video on his gadget without exhibiting it to others.

Holding that watching porn video privately on mobile would not be offence, Justice P V Kunhikrishnan cautioned if minor children started to watch porn videos, now accessible in all mobile phones, there will be far reaching consequences.

The judge said the parents should be aware of the danger behind handing over mobile phones to the minor children.

"The innocent parents will give mobile phones to their minor children to make them happy. Instead of delicious food made by the mother and a cake cutting ceremony on birthdays of children, parents are giving mobile phones with internet access to their minor children as a gift on such occasions to make them happy," the court said.

It said the children should watch informative news and videos from the mobile phones of their parents in their presence only.

"Parents should never hand over mobile phones to minor children to make them happy and thereafter complete their daily routine works in their house allowing unsupervised use of mobile phones by children. Let the children play cricket or football or other games they like during their leisure time. That is necessary for a healthy young generation who are to become the beacons of hope of our nation in the future," the bench said.

The court also underlined the impotance of home cooked meals for the children, observing, "Instead of purchasing food from restaurants through ‘swiggy’ and ‘zomato’, let the children taste the delicious food made by their mother and let the children play at play grounds at that time and come back home to the mesmerising smell of mother’s food".

"I leave it there to the wisdom of the parents of minor children of this society," the judge said.

Allowing a petition by a man to quash the criminal proceedings for watching a porn video in his private time, the bench said, "A court of law cannot declare that the same amounts to an offence for the simple reason that it is his private choice and interference with the same amounts to an intrusion of his privacy."

It said pornography has been in practice for centuries and the new digital age has made it more accessible than ever before and it is available even to children and adults at their fingertips.

The court said consensual sex between a man and woman is not an offence in our country, if it is within their privacy.

"A court of law need not recognise consensual sex or watching of a porn video in privacy because these are within the domain of the will of society and the decision of legislature," the court said.

The man was on July 11, 2016 found watching porn video on his mobile phone by the police during patrol duty.

The judge held, "I am of the considered opinion that, watching of an obscene photo by a person in his privacy by itself is not an offence under Section 292 IPC. Similarly, watching of an obscene video by a person from a mobile phone in his privacy is also not an offence under Section 292 IPC. If the accused is trying to circulate or distribute or publicly exhibits any obscene video or photos, then alone the offence under Section 292 IPC is attracted."

[Read Order]