Madhya Pradesh High Court rejects plea alleging Dainik Bhaskar published ad with nude photo of woman
Court finds image in newspaper advert was sufficiently blurred, no case for obscenity or corruption of public morals
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a petition challenging a 2012 Dainik Bhaskar newspaper advertisement accused of publishing a nude photo of a woman in connection with promotion of the film ‘Players’. Justice Achal Kumar Paliwal concurred with lower courts, finding that the advertisement, though depicting a woman without clothes, had her breasts and genitals adequately blurred with words placed strategically over intimate areas.
The Court observed that the obscured image did not have the tendency to deprave or corrupt the minds of newspaper readers and thus could not be classified as obscene under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code. It concluded that the intent of the advert was not to excite sexual passions and dismissed contentions to the contrary.
Upon review, the judgment upheld lower court findings, stating there was no illegality in their reasoning for rejecting the complaint and related revision petitions.