New Delhi, Feb. 26: The Supreme Court today told the Centre that in the name of free speech the nation cannot afford to permit pornography, particularly that relating to children, and directed the government to come out with a suitable mechanism to curb the menace.

"Children cannot be made prey to this kind of painful situation and a nation cannot afford to carry on any experiment with its children in the name of liberty or for that matter freedom of speech. You have to be more scientific," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh told additional solicitor general Pinky Anand.

The Centre had said that while it agreed with the need to curb child pornography, a blanket ban on adult pornography may not be feasible. Anand told the court that the government does not have the technical expertise to impose such a ban and, besides that, issues like geographical boundaries and individual's right to privacy are involved.

"Ban on other content (adult) may not be possible in principle. The question is whether the State should be entertaining the issue at all.

"These service providers are not within the jurisdiction of the country. There should be self-regulation or should there be mandatory provision for banning the materials, these are all issues which we need to examine," the ASG said, seeking time to file the government's response.

The apex court is dealing with a PIL filed in 2014 by a Madhya Pradesh-based advocate, Kamlesh Vaswani, who through counsel Vijay Panjwani sought a ban on all pornography sites freely available on the Internet. The petitioner contended that a number of rapes and gang rapes, including the December 2012 gang rape of a paramedic in Delhi, were the consequence of the accused watching pornography.

During the hearing today, Justice Misra initially objected to the ASG's submission that banning pornography would be difficult as it involved an individual's right to privacy.

"I can't understand what is the privacy?" Justice Misra asked

Justice Shiva Kirti Singh, the other member of the bench, said: "State shall not interfere in all matters. But there should be a certain intervention. Balance has to be struck between the rights of individuals and move to curb a crime."

The ASG said the Centre had decided to ask the CBI to get in touch with Interpol to identify sites dishing out pornography. Once the data was obtained, the CBI would forward it to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the Department of Electronics (DEL), which in turn in turn would forward the names of these websites to the various Internet service providers (ISPs).

"We are doing it in an indirect manner because of some objections. They (websites) are also not within the technical boundaries of India", the ASG said.

The bench said: "The case pertains to pornography in the free corridors. If it is not permissible by the government of India.... it is the obligation of the government of India to ban it. Mechanism has to be developed. You have experts. There are ways and means. How it can be done you have to see."

"Obscenity in law is prohibited," the bench said, posting the matter for further hearing to March 28.

The court also permitted the Supreme Court Women's Lawyers' Association, through senior counsel Mahalakshmi Balaji and Sneha Kalita, to intervene in the case.

The association has pleaded for a ban on pornography material, pleading that a number of school bus drivers/cleaners and conductors across the country have become pornography addicts and are subjecting school children to sexual abuse.