Rakesh Shukla, a Supreme Court advocate, has interesting comments to make about morality plays [Link]
It would be no exaggeration to say that 90 per cent of the programmes would fall within the ambit of Section 19 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, which empowers an authorised officer of the rank of sub-divisional magistrate to prohibit any programme or channel not in conformity with the programme code. In addition, Section 16 provides that individuals and companies can be punished with two years' imprisonment for a first violation and five years for a subsequent offence.
However, the Act is not a one-off legislation but reflective of the prevalent hypocrisy in the conception of adult individuals in law. The Indian Penal Code defines obscenity as anything that is lascivious or appeals to prurient interest or tends to deprave and corrupt persons, and makes the offender liable to imprisonment. The code was made in 1860 and remains the law of the land. The Information Technology Act of 2000 uses the same phraseology and makes the transmission of obscene material punishable. 'Lascivious', 'prurient', 'deprave' and 'corrupt' are Victorian words but to retain them after a century and half of tumultuous change, in a law brought to provide a legal framework to electronic communication, does leave one feeling like Rip Van Winkle.
Instead of looking upon persons as discerning individuals, the law treats them as minds waiting to get corrupted. It identifies obscenity and pornography as the root cause of sexism, aggression and violence against women. Making erotica a scapegoat blocks out an understanding of structures that perpetuate sexist chauvinism, aggression and violence in society. The role of sex pre-selection, differential treatment of boys and girls, stereotypes perpetuated through myths and films, social and religious customs like dowry get conveniently glossed over.
Shukla ends thus:
We Indians may be from the land of Khajuraho and Kama Sutra, but we are a remarkably prudish lot. Dirty sex, objectification of women, aggression, violence, and sexism is all 'out there'. 'They' are trying to deprave and corrupt. Misogynist serials, exploitative advertisements and sexist jokes will co-exist with a veneer of hypocritical morality in public discourse and the law.
