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4 Nat'l L.U. Delhi Stud. L.J. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/nludslj2022 and id is 1 raw text is: 'DE-X-ING' THE XXX: THE CONSTITUTIONAL VALIDITY OF INDIA'S PORN BAN Aanchal Kabra and Rohit Gupta* In 2020, the Government of India controversially banned 857 websites hosting pornography, arguing that their operation was directly proportionate to the number of sexual assaults in the country. This action attracted criticism from scholars and citizens alike. However, in light of recent events, the opinion of liberal scholarship must be re-examined as the need for regulation of pornographic content is more necessary than ever. Preliminarily, this paper undertakes a socio-legal study on the effects of pornography upon the prevalence of sexual violence. As its operative aspect, this paper explores the estranged relationship of such a ban with the fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India. Recent jurisprudence indicates that not only do adults in India possess a right to sexual privacy, but also that such a right should extend to creating and consuming consensual pornographic content. This paper thus ventures to analyse the legality of the profession of 'porn stars', detaching itfrom the res extra commercium doctrine, and analyses the permissibility of the same in light of the analogous licensing framework imposed upon dance bars and bar dancers. Further, this paper takes on a unique take on the failure of the ban on pornography to comply with Article 14 of the Indian Constitution for want ofrequirements of an intelligible differentia and rational nexus for the same. Thus, in light of the growing numbers of pornographic films and sexual assaults in the country, this paper first suggests lesser restrictive methods, such as content moderation, and then points towards methods for remodelling the ban such that it is not only intra vires, but also effective. Keywords: porn ban -fundamental rights - equality - sexual privacy intelligible differentia - obscenity * Aanchal Kabra and Rohit Gupta are final year students at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (WBNUJS).

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