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Delhi court finds Wall's ice-cream advert obscene, orders action

A Delhi court today asked the police to confiscate the audio-visual material relating to an advertisement of a popular brand of ice-cream (Wall's) which it said could be termed obscene.

In a suo moto order, chief metropolitan magistrate R K Gauba said the advertisement could prima facie be termed as obscene within the meaning of the expression used in Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code and would also be punishable under the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986.

He asked the concerned deputy commissioner of police to find out if the advertisement referred to in a prominent Delhi newspaper yesterday actually existed, confiscate the audiovisual materials and to identify the persons involved in the making of it. He wanted a report to be filed by June 22.

He said the freedom of expression could not be an unbridled right. It has to be circumscribed and must remain confined within the sphere where it does not offend the penal law of the country.

A news item in a Delhi newspaper had said that the Delhi-based Television Viewers' Forum had filed a complaint against the 'mate your stick' advertisement of Wall's with the Advertisement Standards Council of India in Bombay.

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