Thiruvananthpuram: The Kerala High Court on Monday ruled that depiction of a woman's naked body should not always be considered as sexual or obscene. A bench of Justice Kauser Edappagath made the observation while discharging a woman, who had been booked for making a video of her children painting on her semi nude body.
Justice Edappagath, while granting relief to the woman, invoked the principles of body autonomy. "The autonomy of the male body is seldom questioned, while the body agency and autonomy of women are under constant threat in a patriarchal structure. The women are bullied, discriminated against, isolated, and prosecuted for making choices about their bodies and lives," Justice Edappagath observed.
The Kerala High Court said that there was nothing sexual in the woman allowing her upper body to be used by her children as an art project. "Painting on the upper body of a mother by her own children as an art project cannot be characterized as a real or simulated sexual act, nor can it be said that the same was done for the purpose of sexual gratification or with sexual intent."
"To term this innocent artistic expression to be ‘usage of a child in real or simulated sexual act’ is harsh. There is nothing to show that the children were used for pornography. There is no hint of sexuality in the video. In the accompanying message, the petitioner has declared the purpose of the video as to make a political point against the default sexualisation of women’s body," Justice Edappagath observed.
"The mere sight of the naked upper body of the woman should not be deemed to be sexual by default. So also, the depiction of the naked body of a woman cannot per se be termed to be obscene, indecent, or sexually explicit. The same can be determined to be so only in context."
Significantly, the woman had been booked for offences under under Sections 13, 14, and 15 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO), Section 67B (d) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act).
She had later approached the Kerala High Court that she had shot the video to challenge patriarchal notions and to spread a message against the over-sexualisation of the female body.
