[JURIST] India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) [official website] asked internet service providers (ISPs) on Monday to block [order, PDF] more than 800 pornographic websites under Section 79 (b) of the country’s Information Act [text, PDF]. Certain sources [Hindustan Times report] within the DoT state that “[c]ertain websites have been reviewed and found to be spreading anti-social activities as hyperlinks from these websites, some of them were pornographic, so we have sent letters to internet service providers to block them.” Information Technology Secretary RS Sharma [official profile, PDF] stated that the request was made by the country’s Supreme Court [official website]. However, just weeks before India’s highest court had refused to block pornographic content stating that adults have the right to consume pornography in the privacy of their homes. Experts argue [Times of India report] that the government has no legal standing to ban pornography as Section 69(a) of the IT Act does not provide the government any ground to ban any website on the basis of morality or obscenity.

The issue of pornography and the liberties surrounding it have been debated intensely in the recent past. The invention and use of revenge porn has brought to the forefront the difficulty and ambiguity [JURIST op-ed] in classifying pornography. In India, the Supreme Court decided that pornography was constitutionally protected as a personal liberty when it denied [Daily Mail report] a request to block pornographic websites in early July.