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 and Live Law reported.
Source: Verdictum
A Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana recorded the Solicitor General's submission that deliberations on the policy formulation are ongoing, and granted the four weeks he sought. The Court 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.
Source: Verdictum
Platforms may have to report uploads, not just remove them
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Bench that a policy framework is under contemplation not just to curb child abuse material, but also the non-consensual transmission of explicit content involving adults, Live Law reported in its live updates from the hearing. He flagged AI-generated content and morphed pictures in which the face and body do not match.
Source: Live Law
According to the Solicitor General, the contemplated Bill may extend to imposing liability on an intermediary not just to take down offensive content once it comes to its notice, but also to apprise the authorities — inform the police — that someone has uploaded it. The Bill may also provide for bona fide complaints by third parties, and not only by the affected person, he said.
"I am in consultation with the Ministry and we must do something; there is no doubt about it." — Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, as reported by Verdictum
Counsel for the petitioner NGO, advocates Aparna Bhat and Vishnu Shankar Jain, submitted that the petitioner is willing to extend proposals and render assistance to the Union in formulating the proposed policy regime. The Court said it had no reason to doubt that the authorities will invite suggestions from all stakeholders.
The Court also heard a connected plea seeking directions to the Centre to take steps to prohibit the streaming of sexually explicit content on over-the-top (OTT) and social media platforms, in which it had issued notice in April 2025, Verdictum reported.