New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine whether the use of vulgar language in a web series TVF 'College Romance' amounts to a “sexually explicit act”, under Section 67A of the Information Technology Act. In March this year, the Delhi High Court ruled that the language used in the web series "College Romance," which is streaming on the over-the-top (OTT) platform, is filthy, profane, and vulgar and will deprave and corrupt the brains of young people.
According to the single judge of the high court Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, the obscenity of the language used in the episodes was so extreme that it was impossible for her to hear in the chamber without shocking others in the vicinity. Today, a bench comprising justices A.S. Bopanna and M.M. Sundresh agreed to examine whether the word “act” encompassed spoken language too. The web series makers have moved the apex court against the high court order.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the web series makers, submitted this was not a case of obscenity and a case of vulgar language is not a case of obscenity and the two are different. Rohatgi stressed that the series portrayed youngsters speaking in rough language and the offence under Section 67A is not made out, and there was no depiction of a sexually explicit physical act on screen.
