TVF web series College Romance: Supreme Court seeks Delhi Police response on plea to quash obscenity case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Delhi Police on a plea by content creation company The Viral Fever (TVF) challenging the registration of criminal complaints in connection with their web series, College Romance [TVF Media Labs Pvt Ltd and ors vs State Govt of NCT of Delhi and anr]..A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli also passed an order continuing the interim protection from arrest and detention granted to the appellants earlier.The case will be heard next in the second week of July..The bench was hearing appeals against a Delhi High Court judgment from March this year that had ruled that the language used in the series was obscene, profane and vulgar, and will deprave and corrupt the the minds of young people.Single-judge Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma had said that she had to watch the episodes of show with the aid of earphones in the chamber as the profanity of language used was such that it could not have been heard without shocking or alarming the people around.The High Court had held that TVF, the show's director Simarpreet Singh and actor Apoorva Arora are liable to face action under Sections 67 (publishing or transmitting, in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious) and 67A (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act) of Information Technology (IT) Act.In this regard, the High Court had upheld an order of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) ordering the Delhi Police to register a first information report (FIR) against the three accused.The High Court had said that the Indian morality and values can only be judged in the Indian context, keeping in mind the contemporary standards of civility and morality.The judge had clarified that the direction to register FIR does not include a direction to arrest any of the accused/petitioner.The High Court had even asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to take steps for enforcing stricter application of its IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021..During the hearing of the appeal against the same today, the apex court stated that it could not grant any blanket stay on investigation or criminal proceedings at this stage.Senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for TVF, stressed that profanity should not be ground to invoke Section 67 of the IT Act."There is so much profanity in social media if we prosecute every case then God knows where we will end up. The High Court says it is like an act (of explicit content)," he said.He added that the parliament has not criminalised profanity, and in the instant case no evidence would be lost since all the content is available online. "Police will seize computers unnecessarily. These are young actors ... These are not hardened criminals but youngsters who made a creative project. If they crossed a line they will not repeat after getting a rap on the knuckles."Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan, appearing for the director, said there would be a chilling effect if no protection is given, and that prima facie no offence was made out."We cannot guide the investigation agency on what they can or cannot look at," Justice Kohli remarked..The appeals before the top court by TVF and the show's director have been filed through advocate Malak Manish Bhatt.Naik & Naik Managing Partner Ameet Naik and Deputy Managing Partner Madhu Gadodia, with advocate Neeha Nagpal, also represented the appellants.[Read order]