Sonu Mehtha
Obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. This word is derived from Latin obscenus meaning “boding ill; disgusting; or indecent”.The word ‘obscenity’ of English law is identical with the word ‘indecency’ which is used under the Indian Constitution. Justice R.P Mukherjee in Sukanta Haider v. The State observed that: “The idea as to what is to be deemed to be obscene has varied from age to age, from region to region, and is dependent upon particular social conditions. There cannot be an immutable standard of moral values”. Therefore it will be right to conclude that Obscenity is subjective to the moral standards of each societal atmosphere.
The Supreme Court in Ramesh Prabhoo has given wider scope to the terms ‘decency’ and ‘morality’ under Article 19(2) . The Court’s observations attempted to include ‘obscenity’ which is immorality by stating the following:
“Indecency is not confined to sexual indecency; indeed it is difficult to find any limit short of saying that it includes anything which an ordinary decent man or woman would find to be shocking, disgusting and revolting”.
Very recently, the Apex Court in Devdas Ramachandra Tuljapurkar v. State of Maharashtra created a new exception under Article 19(1) (a) when it comes to putatively obscene speech about “historically respectable figures”. The conception of the term ‘decency’ & ‘morality’ varies from time to time. For instance, birth control methods were considered as immoral during the primitive time and publication dealing with writings on such contraception was considered to be immoral but now the perception is completely changed and there is no offence to discuss and write on such material, rather the state encouraged their publication and disseminated the information.
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