FIR Against Pharma Firm Head Dismissed after MP High Court says 'Condom Ad Featuring Couple Playing Garba is Not Obscene'

Recent criminal charges against the president of a pharmaceutical company for printing a condom commercial featuring a couple doing the Garba and allegedly offending religious emotions were dismissed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The bench of Justice Satyendra Kumar Singh noted that the accused's purpose was to advertise the product of his company rather than to hurt anyone's religious beliefs or sentiments.

Because no violation of Section 295-A, Section 505 of the IPC, or Section 67 of the IT Act had been established, the FIR, chargesheet, and following criminal proceedings against him before the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Indore, were cancelled by the court.

Mahendra Tripathi, the owner of Morphus Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., advertised free condoms and pregnancy test kits on social media with the caption "Pre-Loveratri Weekend Offer - Condoms (pack of 3)/Pregnancy Test Kit at INR 0" during Navratri in 2018. The promotion ran for two days.

This campaign's objective was to let people know that the company was distributing free condom packs and pregnancy kits on October 6 & 7 in 2018. The photograph mentioned earlier also had a background with a couple doing the Garba.

An FIR was then filed as a result of complainant Ajay's written letter to the SHO alleging that the applicant's advertisement had offended people's religious emotions.

A chargesheet against the petitioner was submitted to the Court of JMFC, Indore, following the completion of the investigation and the receipt of prosecution sanction. In order to have the FIR, subsequent chargesheet, and subsequent criminal proceedings quashed, the applicant petitioned the High Court under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The Court dismissed all charges brought against the petitioner because it believed that to continue would be an abuse of the legal system.