The Delhi High Court, on Monday, March 6, ordered FIR against The Viral Fever (TVF), director of the show ‘College Romance’ Simarpreet Singh, and actor Apoorva Arora. The court made the judgment while hearing petitions moved by TVF Media Labs Pvt Ltd, the Casting Director of College Romance, and its lead actors against orders passed by Sessions Court and ACMM for the registration of FIRs against them.
The court opined that the language used in the web series was vulgar and obscene and it didn’t represent the language used by the majority of students in colleges. Justice Swarana Kant Sharma said that she had to use earphones while watching an episode of the Web Series which is titled “Happily Fu#ked Up” to ensure that the people around were not alarmed or offended by the profanity and vulgarness of the language.
A brief history of the case
Earlier, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) had in its order dated September 17, 2019, directed the police to register FIRs against TVF and its actors and director under the provisions of Sections 292 and 294 of IPC and sections 67 and 67A of IT Act. This order was subsequently challenged in the Session Court and the Additional Sessions Judge directed the police to drop Sections of IPC and continue actions under Sections 67 and 67A() of the IT act. Notably, even after the Judgement of the ASJ, the concerned web series was available on Youtube for people of all ages. The same cannot be found on Youtube anymore, but it can still be viewed on TVF’s OTT platform TVF Play.
The High Court’s Observations
This judgment was challenged before the High Court and the court noted that such profanities were not a true representation of the college culture in India. Justice Swarana Kant Sharma said, “After watching a few episodes of the series, as well as the episode in question, this Court found that the actors/protagonists in the web series are not using the language used in our country i.e. civil language. The Court not only found excessive use of ‘swear words’, ‘profane language’, and ‘vulgar expletives’ being used, it rather found that the web series had a series of such words in a sentence. In the episode in question, there is a clear description and reference to a sexually explicit act”
Justice Sharma also pointed out the discomfort she felt while watching the series on speakers as that could have alarmed and offended people around her, so she had to use her earphones.
The Hon’ble Court in its 41 pages detailed Judgement said that the courts might look old-fashioned but this is very concerning and we have to take strict action against profanity that goes in the name of artistic freedom. The decayed and degraded version of the Hindi language as portrayed in the web series is not part of the common culture, be it in Universities or outside, the court observed. The Court also asked the Government to impose the 2021 IT rules strictly so that OTT platforms cannot escape the legal radar.
Observations on linguistic morality
The High Court, while recognizing the limits that exist for linguistic control, remarked, “Criminal law is based on a moral conception of right and wrong. While this Court is not suggesting that Court should inhibit the celebration of freedom of expression, it cannot but observe that in the present case, in the name of freedom of expression and changing linguistic preferences of the youth, the overwhelming motive is economic profit and, therefore, restrictions are justified in such cases and infringements need to be punished.”
“While this Court remains aware that the courts cannot ensure by way of orders, nor there can be any scheme by way of which a perfect society of perfect individuals be brought about, however, the scheme of the law and rules have to be appropriately tailored to ensure that without there being an infringement of fundamental rights, there is no degrading and depravity caused by use of unhindered obscenity, profanity, and foul language in free for all social media platforms”, the court further added.
The Court further said that the use of obscenities in the web series in the form of foul language degrades women so that they may feel like victims as the expletives and obscenities refer to women being objects of sex and referring to their genitalia.
