'You Know What Happened In Nepal After They Tried To Ban?' : Supreme Court On Plea To Block Access To Porn For Minors

The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the issue of banning access to pornography for individuals below the age of 18 years and watching porn.

The bench of CJI BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran verbally observed that the matter fell under the government's policy domain.

The counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Varun Thakur, stressed that the onset of digital accessibility to youngsters, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, has exposed the children in the age bracket of 14-18 years to pornography in just a click's time.

He stressed: " After COVID, children are using mobile, in one click, this situation is there, the entire world, Europe, Australia, China, Arab Countries, it's completely banned except in this country."

Referring to the recent youth protests in Nepal, the CJI, however, replied: You know they tried to ban it in Nepal, then what happened in Nepal

The bench agreed to re-list the matter after 4 weeks.

Why Does The Petitioner Seek Porn Ban?

The plea cites that " every second 5000 porn sites were watched, since from 2005, More than 2 crore porn videos /porn clippings are being launched through Internet or porn videos each year, it estimates that more than 20 crores porn video/porn clippings including child pornography, are freely available in Indian market."

The plea also relies upon S.69A, which empowers the Central Government to issue directions for blocking public access to any information through any computer resource. However, the petitioner states that despite the powers under the said provision, the Union has not exercised any such ban.

The petitioner seeks the following reliefs :

a) Issue a Writ, Order or direction to formulate the national policy and draft an action plan to curb the watching of pornography, especially those not attained the age of majority and

b) Issue an appropriate direction against the respondents to prohibit the watching of pornographic material of any form at public place.

Case Details: B.L. JAIN vs. UNION OF INDIA| W.P.(C) No. 000722 / 2025