Prosecution for publication of obscene matter.

These are connected Criminal Revision Cases filed against the convictions and sentences by the learned Third Presidency Magistrate, Saidapet, in C.C. Nos. 3564 and 3682 of 1956, 3685 of 1956 and 3686 of 1956 respectively under section 292, Indian Penal Code and sentences of fine of Rs. 100 in each case.

The facts of these cases have been fully set out in the judgments of the lower Court and need not be recapitulated.

The short point for determination is whether these publications which constitute the subject-matter of enquiry viz., the Tamil quarterly journal sold very cheaply in street corners and book stalls catering for prurient tastes called (Body and sensation) and which deals from cover to cover with nothing but sex, sexual organs, curiosities of love and of sex life and gratification of normal and abnormal sexual appetites and varieties of sexual intercourse etc., constitute publication of obscene matter falling within the purview of section 292, Indian Penal Code.

The definition of obscenity both in language and in law is vague. The Oed, S. V. ‘Obscene’ says: 'ad L. obscenus, obscoenus adverse, inauspicious, ill-omened; transf. abominable, disgusting, filthy, indecent: of doubtful etymology ‘The precise meaning, says Craies, 'is decidedly ambiguous', but 'the test of criminality. . is whether the exhibition or matter tends to deprave'.

In Craies’s definition not only is it necessary to define ‘deprave ‘but it is extremely improbable that the original intention of the law was this alone. The law merely codifies social resentment, but why social opinion originally resented ‘obscenity ‘is a difficult question of psychology. Meanwhile, with regard to the meaning of the idea and the etymology of the Latin term, it is to be noted that the differentia of obscene things, acts and words is, negatively concealment, or, positively, publication. In other words, to take a considerable percentage of a obscene matter, this consists of natural acts and terms, and the exploitation of the organs from which they are derived, which, on being made public, offend social opinion. Thus, a plausible derivation of the word connects it with Latin obscurus, ‘concealed’ ‘and terms in various languages corroborate this But the primary meaning of the Latin word seems to have been ‘inauspicious, ill-omened’, and the Latins resented obscenity just for this reason of ill-omen1. A parallel to this is the social objection to profane swearing. The most probable derivation, therefore, is perhaps that of Littre and Skeat2. Connected with the Lat. Scoevus, ‘left’, ‘left-handed’, and inauspicious, the word obscenus, obscoenus, may presuppose obscoevinus. On the strength of the verb obscoevare, found in Plautus3. (Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. IX, pages 441-442.)

OBSCENE

New Standard Dictionary Funk and Wagnalls.-Offensive to chastity, delicacy, or decency; expressing or presenting to the mind or view something that decency,delicacy and purity forbid to be exposed; offensive to morals; indecent; impure.

Obscene Publication (Law), an indecent publication which, whether true or false, tends to deprave and corrupt.

A New English Dictionary Murray.-Offensive to the senses, or to taste or refinement; disgusting, repulsive, filthy, foul, abominable, loathsome.

Offensive to modesty or decency; expressing or suggesting unchaste or lustful ideas; impure, indecent, lewd.

Webster’s New International Dictionary.-Offensive to chastity or modesty; expressing or presenting to the mind or view something that delicacy, purity and decency forbid to be exposed; impure; as, obscene language; obscene pictures.

Impure, indecent, unchaste, lewd.

Words and phrases Judicially Defined: Burrows.-It is quite clear that the publishing of an obscene book is an offence against the law of the land. It is perfectly true...that there are a great many publications of high repute in the literary production of this country the tendency of which is immodest, and, if you please, im