Consumer goods company Dabur had to withdraw its advertisement showing a same-sex couple celebrating the Hindu festival Karwa Chauth because of “public intolerance”, Supreme Court judge Justice DY Chandrachud said on Sunday.

On October 25, Dabur took down the advertisement hours after Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra warned of legal action against the firm.

The commercial for Dabur’s beauty brand Fem showed two women performing the Karwa Chauth ritual of couples looking at each other through a sieve. Mishra had said that showing lesbian couple performing the ritual was “objectionable”. He had questioned why such advertisements showed “festivities related to the Hindu religion” only.

On Sunday, Justice Chandrachud mentioned the controversy while speaking at an online event organised by the National Legal Services Authority and the National Commission for Women.

Chandrachud spoke about “divergence between ideals of the law and the real state of the society” when it came to constitutional rights of women.

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He recounted certain court cases related to maternity leaves and domestic violence. The judge then went on to add: “...Just two days ago, all of you would know about this advertisement which a company was required to pull down...It was an advertisement for Karwa Chauth of a same-sex couple. It had to be withdrawn on the grounds of public intolerance.”

Justice Chandrachud was part of a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court that had in 2018 decriminalised homosexuality.

“The choice of a partner, the desire for personal intimacy and the yearning to find love and fulfilment in human relationships have a universal appeal, straddling age and time,” Chandrachud had said in the verdict.” In protecting consensual intimacies, the Constitution adopts a simple principle: the state has no business to intrude into these personal matters.”

Over the last two weeks, there have been three other instances of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders objecting to advertisements with portrayals of Hindu festivals and customs.

On October 19, clothing and furnishing brand Fabindia withdrew an online advertisement timed to Diwali after BJP leaders and right-wing Hindu groups objected that the company used the Urdu phrase “Jashn-e-Riwaaz”, meaning celebration of tradition.

On October 21, BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde objected to an advertisement by tyre manufacturing company CEAT that featured actor Aamir Khan. In the advertisement, Khan can be seen advising a group of people to burst firecrackers inside a housing society, and not on the streets during Diwali.

In a letter to CEAT Chief Executive Officer Anant Vardhan Goenka, Hegde claimed that the advertisement has “created unrest among Hindus”.

On Sunday, fashion label Sabyasachi withdrew a social media advertisement promoting its new mangalsutra collection after Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra warned the brand’s founder Sabyasachi Mukherjee of legal action.

A series of advertisements showed models wearing mangalsutra while posing solo or in intimate positions with others. Mishra claimed that the advertisement was “highly objectionable and hurtful”.

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  2. Dabur ad withdrawal shows that the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India amounts to nothing