Three years and five lakh rupees on a first conviction: the law already on obscene material posted online

Background

Chief Minister V D Satheesan said on 2 November that Kerala is examining legal ways to bring in a dedicated Act against insults and attacks on women on social media, telling the HER Summit 2026 that existing law does not protect them enough. The law as it stands rests largely on the Information Technology Act, 2000. Section 67 of that Act punishes anyone who publishes obscene material in electronic form, transmits it, or causes it to be published or transmitted. The test it sets is whether the material is lascivious, appeals to the prurient interest, or tends to deprave and corrupt those likely to see, read or hear it. On a first conviction the punishment is imprisonment of up to three years together with a fine of up to five lakh rupees. On a second or later conviction it rises to imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to ten lakh rupees.