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Aveek Sarkar v State of West Bengal (2014) | End of Hicklin Test Explained

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Case 11 of 30 in Law Easy's Media Law series. Aveek Sarkar v. State of West Bengal, Supreme Court of India, decided 2014. FACTS A German magazine published a photograph of tennis star Boris Becker posing nude with his fiancée Barbara Feltus, meant as a protest against racism. In 1993 the Indian magazine Sports World and the newspaper Anandabazar Patrika reproduced it, and a lawyer filed an obscenity complaint against the editor and publisher. The High Court refused to quash the case. WHAT THE COURT HELD In a judgment by Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan, the Supreme Court quashed the proceedings. The Hicklin test is no longer the correct test; the contemporary community standards test applies. Only material that tends to excite lustful thoughts can be obscene, judged from the point of view of an average person. A picture of a nude or semi-nude woman is not obscene by itself and must be seen in its context and message. EXAM POINT This is the case that moved Indian law away from the Hicklin test of Ranjit Udeshi. PREVIOUS CASE: S. Khushboo v. Kanniammal - https://youtu.be/IBhs04GOSDY NEXT CASE: Apurva Arora v. Government of NCT of Delhi - https://youtu.be/g7-mMpSpKGc FULL PLAYLIST (all 30 cases in order): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY-t71WbMh6k COMPLETE LECTURE (all 30 cases, 1 hour 52 minutes): https://youtu.be/8AFvktrLPM4 Made for LL.B. students and for CLAT PG, UGC NET Law and judiciary exam preparation. Subscribe to Law Easy for the full law course. Notes: https://www.thelaweasy.com #MediaLaw #Obscenity #LawEasy

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Aveek Sarkar

Supreme Court of India · 2014

In Aveek Sarkar v. State of West Bengal (2014), the Supreme Court held that a photograph of tennis player Boris Becker posing nude with his fiancee, published with an anti-racism message, was not obscene, and it quashed the criminal proceedings under Section 292 IPC. The Court rejected the old Hicklin test and adopted the community standards test. It also held that material must be judged in its full context. This judgment changed the direction of obscenity law in India and strengthened press and artistic freedom.

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