The fight against online porn ban in India is just getting bigger. Women lawyers of the Supreme Court on whose plea its judges had five months ago asked the Modi government to find out "ways and means" to block pornography on the Internet and make watching of blue film in public an offence have struck again.

NO FREE ACCESS



The Supreme Court Woman Lawyers' Association (SCWLA) says no porn site should have free access and those desperate to watch it should be made to pay a hefty amount which "can act as a deterrent". It also moots a "revenue-generation model for the government".

It also wants establishing of rehabilitation centres across India for those "addicted to porn", and complete blocking of eight porn sites - Xvideos.com, Xnxx.com, Pornhub.com, Xhamster.com, Youporn.com, Redtube. com, Tube8.com, Hclips.com - which are "very popular" but most content in these are without the consent of the person figuring in the video.

These are some of the suggestions SCWLA, which became a party in the public interest litigation (PIL) along with original petitioner and lawyer Kamlesh Vaswani, submitted to the SC on its directions. A bench headed by justice Dipak Misra had on February 26 this year asked for the suggestions so that "it can pass it on to the competent authority of the central government".

HEFTY AMOUNT

Referring to "increasing" instances where auto drivers, bus drivers and conductors indulge in molestation and sodomy, the affidavit says: "Limited access to people making request to visit porn sites, may be provided (like VPN gateway server, etc) with certain conditions like instead of making payment to the service providers, a hefty amount be made to the government of India."

This way, it is reflected in the bank accounts, also people like auto drivers and people belonging to such similar strata of the society will have restricted access to online pornography.

Also, it can be a great revenue-generating model for the government". "The government should make a security payment gateway before allowing any person to view porn online. Also, before the payment, details like name, address, contact number should be verified and only after the completion of such details, should the payment be allowed," said the affidavit filed by SCWLA secretary Prerna Kumari, which was drafted by senior lawyer Mahalakshmi Pavani.

MORAL POLICING VS PRIVACY

The government, if need be, can also censor minors from viewing pornographic material by adopting such a measure, it says. The SC is exploring the possibility of banning watching of pornographic materials in any form at public places.

Despite stiff objection from the Centre that said it only favoured banning child pornography sites and not "going beyond" considering a citizen's right to privacy and did not want to be seen "moral policing", the court has already directed the Centre to "develop a mechanism" for blocking all porn sites with the help of Information Technology experts and service providers.

ALSO READ:

Chennai techie couple earned Rs 2 crore from child porn sites, arrested

Man arrested for uploading ex-girlfriends videos on porn site

