New Delhi: Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal
on Monday got support from the Press Council whose chief, Justice
Markandey Katju said that he favoured filtering of "offensive
material" on social networking sites as it could promote
religious hatred.
"The pictures and other contents show religious figures
of certain communities in a highly offensive and even
pornographic manner. Such material is bound to create
religious hatred and lead to most undesirable consequences,"
Katju said in a statement.
Katju`s comments come in the wake of the controversy
triggered by Sibal`s comments about objectionable material on
the Internet.
The Press Council chief said that following the
controversy he had carefully examined the contents, pictorial
and the rest on the Internet and had come across highly
offensive material.
"The pictures I have seen not only hurt the religious
sentiments of members of certain religious communities, but
are also outrageous, inflammatory and egregious, and are
bound to disturb peace and result in serious law and order
problems," he said.
Katju said that as per Section 153A of the IPC, it is a
criminal offence to promote, or attempt to promote disharmony,
feelings of enmity or hatred or ill-will between different
religious communities or groups, or do an act which is
prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different
religious groups or communities, and which is likely to
disturb the public tranquillity.
"I have carefully perused the material in question and am
of the opinion that there can be no manner of doubt that they
attract Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code," the former
Supreme Court judge said.
"Hence I am of the view that such offensive material
should be removed or filtered out from the social network
sites on the Internet immediately," Katju said.
PTI
