Mumbai: Mumbai Sessions Court ruled that sending messages to unknown women such as "you are slim, are you married?, I like you" at night amounts to obscenity. The court upheld the conviction of a man who had been sending obscene messages to a former corporator.
The court emphasized that obscenity should be judged from the perspective of an “average person applying contemporary community standards.”
The accused sent messages and pictures to the women during the night 11:00 PM and 12:30 PM, including comments like “You are slim,” “you are looking very smart,” “You are fair,” “Are you married?” and “I like you.”
The court highlighted that no married woman or her husband would tolerate such messages, especially from someone they didn't know. It also noted that the accused had no evidence to suggest any relationship between him and the complainant.
The accused had been convicted earlier in 2022 by a magistrate court and sentenced to three months in prison. He appealed the conviction in the Sessions Court, claiming political rivalry as the reason for his false implication.
“Furthermore, no woman would stake her dignity implicating an accused in a false case,” it held.
The accused sent inappropriate text and pictures to women. proved by prosecution as per the court.
“Therefore, the accused is rightly convicted and sentenced by the trial court (magistrate),” the sessions judge noted, as per media agency PTI.
