Table of case law on obscenity

NAME	COURT	CITATION	KEYWORDS
Emperor v. Vishnu Krishna Puranik (5/12/1912)	The Maharashtra High Court	(1913) 15 Bom LR 307	Test of obscenity; whether the language complained of is calculated to deprave or corrupt those whose minds are open to immoral influences; distinction between obscenity and primitive frankness of expression
Emperor v. Rahimatalli Mahomedalli Mulla (30/9/1919)	The Maharashtra High Court	(1920) 22 Bom LR 166	Pamphlet ridiculing the Head priest by using abusive and vulgar language; dissenting judgements.
Sukanta Halder (in custody) v. The State (20/7/1951)	The West Bengal High Court	AIR 1952 Cal 214	Scientific journal; correspondence from readers; neither the cause of literature nor of science was furthered by the expressions or pictorial representations.
In Re: D. Pandurangan (7/11/1952)	The Tamil Nadu High Court	AIR 1953 Mad 418	Printing and publishing of book with obscene content; no presumption against the keeper of a press.
Krishna Sharma v. State (23/9/1953)	The Saurashtra High Court (Gujarat)	AIR 1954 Saurashtra 2	Newspaper articles, scurrilous allegations
M. Ramamurthy v. State of Mysore (4/2/1954)	The Mysore High Court (Karnataka)	AIR 1954 Kant 164	Monthly journal attracting Sec 292; test is that of an ‘ordinary young person’.
State v. Thakur Prasad (14/5/1958)	The Uttar Pradesh High Court	AIR 1959 All 49	Treatise on sexual intercourse; convicted of obscenity.
C.T. Prim v. The State (29/4/1959)	The West Bengal High Court	AIR 1961 Cal 177	Importing obscene books; when responsibility is enjoined by law, mere difficulty in carrying it out is no defence.
Ranjit D. Udeshi v. State of Maharashtra (19/8/1964)	Supreme Court	AIR 1965 SC 881	Sale of ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ in Bombay; standards of obscenity – relative; sec 292 – reasonable restriction on constitutional freedoms
Shri Chandrakant Kalyandas Kakodkar v. State of Maharashtra (25/8/1969)	Supreme Court	AIR 1970 SC 1390	Short story depicting a young poet with three relationships; may have exhibited bad taste; not obscene.
State of U.P. v. Kunji Lal (7/4/1970)	The Uttar Pradesh High Court	AIR 1970 All 614	Books alleged to be obscene; pictures in them; conviction upheld.
Durlab Singh v. State (16/9/1970)	The Delhi High Court	1974 Cri LJ 1182	Newspaper article; might affect teenagers and persuade married women to act similarly.
K. A. Abbas v. Union of India (24/9/1970)	Supreme Court	AIR 1971 SC 481	Censorship; freedom of speech and expression; justified in the interests of society.
Uttam Singh v. The State (Delhi Administration) (21/3/1974)	Supreme Court	AIR 1974 SC 1230	Playing cards portraying obscene pictures of men and women in sexual postures.
Virendra Bandhu v. State of Rajasthan (2/11/1979)	The Rajasthan High Court	AIR 1980 Raj 241	Advertisements using scantily clad females; implementation of Indecent Representation of Women Prohibition Act and Cable Television Networks Regulation Act.
Raj  Kapoor v. Laxman (14/12/1979)	Supreme Court	AIR 1980 SC 605	Complaint of obscenity against Raj Kapoor for ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’; censor certificate granted; film cannot be proceeded against; protected by Sec 79 of IPC.
Samaresh Bose v. Amal Mitra (24/9/1985)	Supreme Court	AIR 1986 SC 967	Novel; distinction between vulgarity and obscenity; reliance on leading literary personage as evidence.
Sada Nand v. State (Delhi Administration) (20/3/1986)	The Delhi High Court	ILR 1986 Delhi 81	Pictures of nude women in a magazine; not obscene as they lack the potential to corrupt the readers.
Akhila Publishers Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Karnataka (18/12/1987)	The Karnataka High Court	1987 (3) Kar LJ 378	Powers of Police to seize publications.
Dr. Promilla Kapur v. Yash Pal Bhasin (22/2/1989)	The Delhi High Court	1989 Cri LJ 1241	Book based on study of call girls; vulgar language in some portions cannot be deemed to be obscene in the overall setting; falls under the exception to Sec 292.
P. K. Somanath v. State of Kerala (20/7/1989)	The Kerala High Court	1990 Cri LJ 542	Prosecution against film magazine; IPC and Indecent Representation of Women Act; pictures of models wearing dresses which were really an ‘apology for a dress’.
Smt. Nasreen Siddiqui v. State of U.P. (18/10/1989)	The Uttar Pradesh High Court	1990 Cri LJ 1318	Modelling; obscene photographs; police can interfere as it was a cognizable offence.
Mohan Gupta v. State (Delhi Administration) (6/3/1990)	The Delhi High Court	ILR 1990 Delhi 371	Obscenity is to be determined taking an overall view of the work and whether it affects a class, not an isolated class. Reference to sexper se is not obscene.
B. Rosaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh (17/71990)	The Andhra Pradesh High Court	1991 Cri LJ 189	Petitioner part of audience of a blue film; doesn’t amount to commission/abetment of distribution of obscene material.
Neelam Mahajan Singh v. Commissioner of Police (1/3/1996)	The Delhi High Court	1996 Cri LJ 2725	Khushwant Singh’s book; shocking/disgusting passages; doesn’t amount to obscenity; freedom of speech and expression.
Mahila Jagran Manch, Bangalore v. State of Karnataka (19/11/1996)	The Karnataka High Court	1999 (4) Kar LJ 295	Writ to ban the Miss World Pageant held in India; restrictions on sale of alcohol and assistance of the govt., reversed by the SC.
Amitabh Bachchan Corp. Ltd. v. Mahila Jagran Manch (20/1/1997)	Supreme Court	(1997) 7 SCC 91	Miss World Pageant held in Bangalore; a section of people agitating is not reason enough to put restrictions on an international event.
G. Jairaj v. State of Karnataka (25/7/1997)	The Karnataka High Court	ILR 1997 Kar 2227	Petition to ban the book “Mahachaitra”; scandalous and mischievous references about historical characters; balance between freedom of speech and expression and public decency and morality.
Chandra Rajakumari v. Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad (27/10/1997)	The Andhra Pradesh High Court	1998 (1) ALD 810	Beauty pageants; unconstitutional and serve to introduce women to flesh trade.
Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Latex Ltd. v. State of Kerala (7/1/1999)	The Kerala High Court	1999 Cri LJ 808	Prosecution for obscene advertisement; Prior to prosecution, ad withdrawn and apologies made; prosecution quashed.
Jagdish Chavla v. State of Rajasthan (25/2/1999)	The Rajasthan High Court	1999 Cri LJ 2562	Without proving the purpose of possession (i.e. either sale or letting for hire), a man cannot be convicted.
Peripogu Manohar v. State of A.P. rep. by Public Prosecutor (19/2/2002)	The Andhra Pradesh High Court	2002 Cri LJ 3216	Certain scenes of a film to be excluded by censor certificate; scenes re-inserted when the film was shown; the operator prosecuted.
Ramakrishnan v. State of Kerala (25/6/2002)	The Kerala High Court	MANU/KE/0302/2002	Seize of certain objectionable reels of film; censor board could not certify in the absence of the full film
Mamta Kulkarni v. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (17/11/2003)	The Maharashtra High Court	2004 (2) Mh LJ 179	Picture in Stardust magazine; obscenity is a relative term; voluntarily exposed himself to the picture, not compelled.
Abhik Sarkar v. State (17/3/2004)	The West Bengal High Court	2004 Cri LJ 2937	Photograph in newspaper; supervisory jurisdiction of Court.
N. Lakshminarayana Achar v. The District Magistrate (17/12/2004)	The Karnataka High Court	ILR 2005 Kar 4843	Licensing authority does not have jurisdiction to suspend or revoke license during the pendency of the proceedings, i.e. before conviction.
Avnish Bajaj v. State (N.C.T.) of Delhi (21/12/2004)	The Delhi High Court	116 (2005) DLT 427	Bail application; only crime -not an alacritous response; bail granted.
Ms. A. Arulmozhi v. The Govt. of India (5/8/2005)	The Tamil Nadu High Court	(2005) 3 MLJ 497	Tamil film; censor board; obscene sequences; innuendos and certain disturbing aspects.
Sujato Bhadra v. State of West Bengal (22/9/2005)	The West Bengal High Court	(2005) 3 CAL LT 436 (HC)	Forfeiture of ‘Dwikhandita’; deliberate and malicious; outrage of religious feelings.
Pratibha Naitthani v. Union of India (21/12/2005)	The Maharashtra High Court	AIR 2006 Bom 259	Cable channels prohibited from showing ‘A’ rated films and ads; not violative of fundamental rights of adults as they can view such films in cinema halls.
Babban Prasad Mishra v. P. S. Diwan (13/2/2006)	The Chattisgarh High Court	2006 Cri LJ 3263	Newspaper advertisement; indecent representation of women.
Kumarbhai Laljibhai Malhotra v. State of Gujarat through Home Secretary (4/8/2006)	The Gujarat High Court	MANU/GJ/8583/2006	Revocation of arms license on prosecution for obscenity; charge does not reflect criminal background.
Ajay Goswami v. Union of India (12/12/2006)	Supreme Court	AIR 2007 SC 493	Fundamental freedom of speech and expression of press; protecting minors from its abuse and harmful effects.
Sangharaj Damodar Rupawate, Anand Patwardhan and Kunda, Pramila v. Nitin Gadre, the State of Maharashtra and Manisha Mhaiskar (26/4/2007)	The Maharashtra High Court	MANU/MH/0813/2007	Forfeiture of every copy of a book; even a reader can challenge an order of forfeiture.
Mr. R. Basu v. N.C.T. of Delhi (4/6/2007)	The Delhi High Court	2007 Cri LJ 4254	Obscene films; no declaration of promise to abide by the programming code.
Vinay Mohan Sharma v. Delhi Administration (5/11/2007)	The Delhi High Court	2008 Cri LJ 1672	Magazine; repetitive photographs of nude women; without literary content or backdrop.
Sopan s/o Vithal Shinde v. The State of Maharashtra (27/2/2008)	The Maharashtra High Court	MANU/MH/0184/2008	Letter alleging promiscuity and adulterous nature of wife; not depraving or corrupting the person reading it.
Sri Deepankar Chowdari v. State of Karnataka (31/3/2008)	The Karnataka High Court	2008 Cri LJ 3408	Watching an ‘obscene’ film at home is not violative of law.
Vishesh Verma v. State of Bihar (9/4/2008)	The Bihar High Court	2008 (56) BLJR 1773	TV serial; actor resembled former Chief Minister; serial made to destabilize government; held to be legitimate creation.
Shilpa Shetty and Reema Sen v. T. Dakshinamurthy (23/4/2008)	The Tamil Nadu High Court	MANU/TN/0732/2008	Obscene photographs of Shilpa Shetty; conviction quashed as she hadn’t published.
Maqbool Fida Hussain v. Raj Kumar Pandey (8/5/2008)	The Delhi High Court	2008 Cri LJ 4107	Nude painting by M.F. Hussain; nothing in the painting that is lascivious or appealing to prurient interests.
Abdul Rasheed v. State of Kerala (21/5/2008)	The Kerala High Court	2008 Cri LJ 3480	Presumption in certain cases that obscene material was for publication/distribution
Nadeem v. The State (Govt of NCT of Delhi) (13/10/2009)	The Delhi High Court	MANU/DE/2740/2009	Prosecution for obscenity (along with rape) for showing prosecutrix an obscene book.
Devidas Ramchandra Tuljapurkar v. The State of Maharashtra, Vasant Dattatraya Gujjar and Dhananjay Dadasaheb Kulkarni (20/1/2010)	The Maharashtra High Court	(2010) 112 Bom LR 535	Obscene poem on Mahatma Gandhi; prima facie case for prosecution.
Jagat Talkies Distributors v. Dy. Commissioner of Police (7/4/2010)	The Delhi High Court	MANU/DE/0741/2010	Cinema hall; screening of obscene film; cancellation of license during pendency of proceedings.

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