Picture of a nude woman cannot be called obscene unless it arose an overt sexual desire
Supreme Court of India
Aveek Sarkar & Anr. v. State of West Bengal & Ors.
[Criminal Appeal No.902 of 2004],
3rd February, 2014
It was held that “a picture of a nude/semi-nude woman,as such, cannot per se be called obscene unless it has the tendency to arouse feeling or revealing an overt sexual desire. The picture should be suggestive of deprave mind and designed to excite sexual passion in persons who are likely to see it, which will depend on the particular posture and the background in which the nude/semi-nude woman is depicted. Only those sex-related materials which have a tendency of “exciting lustful thoughts” can be held to be obscene, but the obscenity has to be judged from the point of view of an average person, by applying contemporary community standards.” The Court held that the question of obscenity is to be examined “in the context in which the photograph appears and the message it wants to convey.”