SC notice to Centre on PIL seeking to ban sexually explicit content on OTT, social media

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and others on a petition seeking a ban on sexually explicit content on over-the-top (OTT) and social media platforms even as it said it’s for the Legislature or the Executive to take measures to deal with the issue.

Noting that “present petition raises an important concern with regard to the display of various objectionable, obscene and indecent contents on OTT platforms and social media,” a Bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih also issued notice to X Corp, Netflix, Amazon, Ullu Digital, ALTBalaji, MUBI, Google, Apple and Meta on a petition filed by Uday Mahurkar and four others.

“This is not within our domain. As it is, there is a lot of allegation that we are encroaching upon the Legislative and Executive powers,” Justice Gavai told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who said the Government would not take it as an adversarial litigation.

Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar had recently questioned the Supreme Court for setting a timeline for the President to take decisions on Bills referred to her by governors and questioned the alleged misuse of Article 142, saying the Supreme Court cannot fire a “nuclear missile” at democratic forces. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had said Parliament and state assemblies should be shut if the Supreme Court had to make laws.

Mehta, however, said it was not an adversarial issue.

“Kindly monitor it here. We will come out with something which balances the freedom of speech while (Article) 19 (2) is taken care of,” Mehta said, pointing out that certain contents circulating on OTT platforms were “perverse”.

Noting that some regulations were there, Mehta said, certain additional measures were under contemplation.

On behalf of the petitioners, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain submitted it was not an adversarial litigation and the petition raised a serious concern over obscene contents being displayed on OTT and social media platforms without any checks or restrictions.

“Mr solicitor, you should do something,” Justice Gavai told Mehta.

Noting that children are more exposed to such contents nowadays. Jain said, “Some of the things which are in regular programmes, the language, the contents... is of such a nature that it is not only vulgar, it is perverse.”

Alleging that there were pages and profiles on social media sites sharing pornographic material without any filter and various OTT platforms were streaming content having potential elements of child pornography, the petitioners have sought guidelines to constitute an authority to prohibit online dissemination of obscene content.

“Such sexually deviant material pollutes the minds of youth, children and even grown up persons which gives rise to perverted and unnatural sexual tendencies thereby leading to an increase in the crime rate,” it said, adding it can have severe consequences on societal values, mental health and public safety.

The petitioners urged the top court to constitute a committee headed by a retired SC judge and experts to oversee and certify for publishing or streaming content on the lines of the Central Board of Film Certification until a law is enacted to regulate it.

They sought a panel of psychologists recognised by the Rehabilitation Council of India and other experts to conduct a nationwide study and submit a report on the adverse impact of sexually explicit content on people.