The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the Union of India four weeks to place on record a policy regime to deal with child sexual abuse material and other forms of non-consensual intimate content online, Verdictum reported.

Source: Verdictum

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was hearing the petitions in Uday Mahurkar v. Union of India and Prajwala v. Union of India. The court recorded that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said deliberations on policy formulation are ongoing and sought four weeks, which the bench granted.

Source: Verdictum

4 weeksTime given to Centre to place policy
2Petitions heard together
3Judges on the bench

LiveLaw's breaking-news alerts for October 27 reported the same submission: Mehta told the court that a policy framework is under contemplation not just to curb child sexual abuse material, but also the non-consensual transmission of explicit content involving adults, including AI-generated and morphed images.

Source: LiveLaw

According to Verdictum, Mehta said that, subject to a Bill passing through the legislative process, an intermediary could be required not only to take such content down once it comes to its notice, but also to inform the police that someone has uploaded it. He also said that under the contemplated framework, anyone who comes to know of such content — not only the person concerned — could complain.

Advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for the petitioner NGO Prajwala, told the court the problem is not confined to children, because adults' explicit videos are also transmitted without consent, and that an earlier court-ordered mechanism is now dysfunctional. She said mandatory reporting by intermediaries currently exists only in cases involving children, under the POCSO Act and the court's judgment in the Just Rights case, and there is no comparable mechanism for adults.

A separate report said the government submission also referred to work by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology with the Ministry of Women and Child Development on amendments to the Information Technology Rules, with stricter obligations for intermediaries expected. Those details are part of the government's submission as reported, and no final policy or Bill text has been placed in the public domain yet.

Source: Chennai Vision

The bench said it would like a policy regime in which other safeguards are also taken care of and, at the same time, this kind of menace is well controlled. It recorded that the petitioner NGO is willing to extend proposals and assist the Union in formulating the policy, and said authorities are expected to invite suggestions from all stakeholders. The matters will be listed for a further date after the four-week period.