The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea filed by TV producer Ekta Kapoor seeking to quash an FIR against her over allegations of disrespecting the Indian Army in her erotic web series XXX 2.
According to the reports, Justice Shailendra Shukla observed that there has to be recorded evidence to determine whether something is obscene or not. “As far as this case is concerned, it can’t be stated outrightly that the episode is not obscene,” Justice Shukla said.
Ekta Kapoor had filed a petition seeking to quash the FIR filed against her for allegedly spreading obscenity, hurting religious sentiments and improper use of national emblems in her web show XXX Season 2.
A resident of Indore, who had filed a complaint, had said that the movie makers had disrespected Indian Army’s uniform.
Ekta Kapoor, in her plea, said that she had no idea about the contents of the episode as she is not the producer or director of the web series. She also added that her name did not reflect in the credits of the episode.
However, the High Court rejected this argument saying that as the Managing Director of Alt Balaji Ekta Kapoor is presumed to ‘have knowledge’ about whatever is shown on the platform.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court, responding to Ekta Kapoor’s argument that the internet was full of much more explicit forms of obscenity, observed, “The flooding of obscene matter on the Internet is primarily because the concerned authorities have not been able to devise a mechanism to isolate and prevent such material. Such failure shouldn’t be considered valid rationalization on the petitioner’s part”.
Dismissing the petition, the High Court also rejected Kapoor’s arguments that a person who has paid the subscription fees to watch the material cannot later complain that the material is obscene, in view of the maxim of ‘Volenti Non-Fit Injuria’.
Complaints filed against Ekta Kapoor for hurting religious sentiments and insulting army personnel in XXX-2
Several complaints were registered against Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor for ‘inappropriate sex scene’ in her erotic web series XXX 2, which was reportedly streamed on OTT platform Alt Balaji.
Ekta Kapoor is the founder of ALT Balaji, which is owned by her production house, Balaji Telefilms. The controversial scenes were telecast in an episode titled, “Pyaar aur Plastic”.
Social media celebrity Vikas Pathak, who is otherwise popularly known as ‘Hindustani Bhau’, had also filed a police complaint against TV producer Ekta Kapoor. According to Hindustani Bhau, an episode in the web series depicts that a wife of an army officer indulges in a physical relationship with her boyfriend, while her husband, who is a soldier, was away from the family.
“Our army is our pride and the woman indulges in a sexual act with a man, who wears her husband’s uniform. This is shameful as they have made a joke of our soldiers,” shared Hindustani Bhau.
