OBSCENITY LAWS IN INDIA
1. Context
BJP leader appealed to the authorities to take action against actor Urfi Javed for “roaming the streets of Mumbai and exhibiting her body”.
2. What is called an Obscene
- The Oxford dictionary defines obscene as ‘offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency’.
- But on the contrary for lawyers, the meaning of ‘obscene’ is not the same. For instance, a book or object to be obscene, Section 292 of the IPC says it must be lascivious or prurient or have the effect of depraving or corrupting someone. The terms ‘lascivious’, ‘prurient’, ‘deprave’ and ‘corrupt’ have not been clearly defined, leaving room for interpretation by courts.
- While the courts, for their part, have developed tests to determine whether something is ‘obscene’.
- In 1965, the Supreme Court adopted the Victorian-era Hicklin test. The test assessed obscenity by the standard of someone who was open to immoral influences and was likely to be corrupted or depraved by the material in question. When approached from this angle, a wide range of material could be ‘obscene’.
- Over the years, the judiciary has narrowed the scope of obscenity. In 2014, the Supreme Court did away with the British Hicklin test and adopted the American Roth test.
- According to this test, obscenity was to be evaluated like an average person would, applying contemporary community standards.
- The contemporary community standards test takes into account the changing values in society. The things that were obscene a century or even a decade ago, need not be obscene now.
3. Obscenity laws in India
- Under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Sections 292, 293 and 294 deal with the offence of obscenity.
- One can find a vague definition of what constitutes obscenity in Section 292, which says that any content shall be deemed to be obscene if it is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest, or if its effect tends to deprave and corrupt persons likely to read, see or hear the content. This section prohibits the sale or publication of any obscene pamphlet, book, paper, painting, and other such materials.
- Section 293 criminalises the sale or distribution of obscene objects to anyone who is under the age of 20, or an attempt to do so. Although it is a bailable offence, the maximum punishment for the first conviction is three years of imprisonment and a fine up to Rs 2,000, and for the second conviction seven years with a fine up to Rs 5,000.
- Section 294 prohibits obscene acts and songs in public spaces. The maximum punishment for the person convicted under this charge is three-month jail and a fine.
- With the advent of the digital age, laws were made to criminalise obscene conduct on the internet also.
- Section 67 of the Information Technology Act says that anyone who publishes or transmits obscene material in electronic form can be punished.
4. Other Notable cases of Obscenity
- In 2022, after Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh posted pictures of his nude photoshoot for the New York-based Paper magazine on social media, police booked him under Sections 292, 293 and 509 of the IPC and Section 67A of the IT Act.
- Before Singh, model and actor Milind Soman was booked by the Goa Police in November 2021 for uploading a photograph of himself running nude on a beach in the state.
For Mains
| For Mains: 1.Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) punishes obscene acts or words in a public place. In the context of the statement what does Indian law say about obscenity? |
Source: The Indian Express
