Question:medium

Which statute punishes the transmission of obscene material online?

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Online obscenity → always start with IT Act s.67. Offline obscenity → BNS 292/293/294 equivalents.
Updated On: Jul 10, 2026
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Approach Solution - 1

Step 1: Issue.
The question asks for the specific statutory provision that punishes transmitting obscene material online.

Step 2: Rule.
The Information Technology Act, 2000 is the special law governing electronic content in India. Section 67 of that Act penalises publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.

Step 3: Application.
General obscenity provisions in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita deal with physical exhibition or sale of obscene objects and are not framed around electronic transmission. Since the act described is transmission over the internet, the applicable law is the special provision built for electronic form, not the general criminal code provision.

Step 4: Conclusion.
The statute punishing online transmission of obscene material is Section 67 of the IT Act, with Sections 67A and 67B as related provisions for sexually explicit and child sexual abuse material respectively.
\[ \boxed{\text{Section 67, Information Technology Act, 2000}} \]
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Approach Solution -2

A useful way to answer this is to apply the principle that a special law overrides a general law on the same subject.

Obscenity as a general concept is dealt with under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita's obscenity provisions, which trace back to Sections 292 to 294 of the old Indian Penal Code. These are general provisions covering obscene books, objects, and public acts in the physical world.


The internet created a new mode of committing the same wrong: sending obscene pictures, videos, or text through electronic means rather than physical distribution. Parliament addressed this by enacting a special provision within the Information Technology Act, 2000, specifically Section 67, aimed only at electronic publication and transmission of obscene material.


Because Section 67 is the special provision made for exactly this fact pattern (obscene content sent or published online), it is the provision that governs, rather than the general obscenity sections of the BNS, which remain available for offline conduct.

Therefore, the correct answer is Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

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