Kerala high court says no offence in watching porn in private

livemint.com:

Watching pornographic photos or videos in private without showing it to others does not attract the offence of obscenity under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code, the Kerala high court has ruled. The high court observed that declaring such an act as an offence would amount to intrusion of a person's privacy and interference with his personal choice, PTI reported Wednesday. The high court gave the ruling while considering a plea by a man who was arrested in July 2016 near Aluva municipality by Kerala police for watching obscene videos on his mobile phone while standing by the side of a road.

The accused petitioned the high court to quash criminal proceedings initiated against him under section 292 of IPC. "The question to be decided in this case is whether a person watching a porn video in his private time without exhibiting it to others amounts to an offence? 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," PTI quoted the order of Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan.

The court also noted that there was no allegation that the petitioner (accused) was publicly exhibited the video, the court said. "I am of the considered opinion that watching an obscene photo by a person in his privacy by itself is not an offence under Section 292 (obscenity) of IPC. Similarly, watching an obscene video by a person from a mobile phone in his privacy is also not an offence under Section 292 IPC.