Right to Depict Potentially Sensitive or Sensational items

The right to freedom of speech and expression covers the right of artists to exhibit all forms of art, even those that showcase obscenity or nudity in some form. The Supreme Court, in its approach to such issues, has followed a case-by-case analysis, and tried to balance the freedom of artistic expression with the larger interest of the community. 

In 1996, the Supreme Court ¹ set aside a decision of the Delhi High Court, which had temporarily restrained the screening of the film ‘Bandit Queen’ (on the grounds of obscenity) until a fresh ‘A’ certificate was issued with several cuts and changes in the film. The Court reinstated the ‘A’ certificate and observed that the scenes with nudity were crucial to the overall narration of the story. Through this judgement, the Supreme Court emphasised the importance of allowing social critique through artistic expression.

In 2008, the Delhi High Court was faced with a petition challenging Maqbool Fida Husain’s painting of Mother India as obscene.² The High Court, while holding that the painting was not obscene, highlighted that a balance between obscenity and creative artistic expression should be reached depending on the current standards, the pervasive character of the artistic expression over obscenity, and also if the art served any public interest. The court must consider the perspective of the artist and the surrounding circumstances of a painting.

1. Bobby Art International v. Om Pal Singh Hoon & Ors, (1996) 4 SCC 1[↩]
2. Maqbool Fida Husain v. Rajkumar Pandey, 2008 CriLJ 4107[↩]