LAWS RELATING TO OBSCENITY & INDECENT REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN

Abstract

Not only it is indecent but also irrelevant when female models/actresses are casted in TV commercials pertaining to commodities which are not even meant to be used by women such as shaving creams, men’s deodorant, men’s undergarments, pan masala and what not. Her presence in such an ad film/commercial is definitely not going foster or multiply the sale statistics in any which way. But to an extent it inadvertently reflects the unprecedented abyssal depths to which our society has fallen. Degeneration of moral values is an inevitable result. A common mindset wherein indecent representation of women is viewed with a callous approach necessitates sensitization and introspection amongst the societal stakeholders. Women cannot be allowed to be portrayed as a commodity. Her depiction should rather be in a proactive and empowered manner, which can have maximum impact on the society and bring about an attitudinal/ behavioral change among people towards women. The test of obscenity as enshrined in the penal law of the land is whether the tendency of the matter, charged with obscenity, is such to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall. Needless to add that it is a matter for contemplation that such exploitation of the female anatomy though prohibited by law, is nevertheless flourishing, due to the non enforcement of such laws to prevent such offences against the public order and good taste that too in a country where women have been held in great in esteem and treated with kindness and courtesy can be seen from numerous verses contained in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, Ithihasas and the legal literatures that formed part of the Dharma Sastras, which stands as the most prominent source material for Hindu Law. One might contend that the line demarcating the decent from the obscene is vague. In such a situation there lies a heavy onus on the judge who while judging the question of obscenity is expected to first place himself at the position of the author/producer and see if the author/producer has conveyed anything of literary and artistic value, and then he has to place himself in the position of the reader/viewer of all age groups in whose hands the material in question is likely to fall so as to understand the possible influence the material can have on its reader/viewer. This research paper is an endeavor to elucidate the functioning of the entire gamut of laws dealing with the subject, the scope of strengthening the existing provisions, the judicial trend  and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.