Govt. claim on child pornography ‘shocking’: HC

No victims of child pornography in children’s homes, says govt.

The High Court of Karnataka has termed as “shocking” the State government’s claim that there are ‘no victims of child pornography’ in children’s homes as mentioned in a report by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in September 2018.

The court also wondered how the State government could come to this conclusion without registering a FIR and conducting any investigation even after the Ministry’s report.

The Ministry’s report, on analysis of date of mapping and review exercise of childcare institutions under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, had specifically stated that there are 113 victims of child pornography in State’s children’s homes.

Cautioning that the court may not hesitate to summon the top police officer of the State to seek explanation on the casual approach on serious offences against children, a Division Bench questioned whether the State government could discard the report without inquiry.

The Bench was hearing a PIL petition filed by Bachpan Bachao Andolan and a plea initiated suo motu by the High Court based on the apex court direction to monitoring implementation of the Act. The State government claimed that no such offence reported in the report had taken place after the court, during earlier hearing, directed the submitting of status of investigations carried out in the cases of 113 victims of child pornography as indicated in the Ministry’s report.

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