Need to regulate vulgar language on OTT platforms, says Delhi High Court
Hearing a case related to ‘College Romance’ show, the court said the episodes had such profanity that it could not be heard without earphones.
The Delhi High Court on Monday said that there is a need to regulate content with vulgar language on over-the-top, or OTT, platforms, Live Law reported.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma made the remarks while hearing a case related to the show College Romance created by the OTT platform The Viral Fever.
The court said that the language used in the show was obscene and vulgar and upheld that the platform, the show’s director Simarpreet Singh and actor Apoorva Arora were liable to face action under the Information Technology Act.
“The court had to watch the episodes with the aid of earphones in the chamber,” Justice Sharma said, according to Bar and Bench. “The profanity of language used was of the extent that it could not have been heard without shocking or alarming the people around…”
A first information report against the case was filed in 2019 on the direction of an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, reported The Indian Express. In November 2020, an additional sessions judge modified the order directing that the FIR can be registered under the IT Act only. The Viral Fever had challenged this order before the Delhi High Court.
In Monday’s order, Justice Sharma said that the concept of morality differs in every country.
“In Indian society, even today, swear words are not spoken in the presence of the elderly, at religious places, or in front of women or children,” she said in the order, according to Live Law. “Though such web series may portray a certain part of society, the popular culture of this country still identifies with and adopts point of view of civil language.”
The court said that the use of obscene words and foul language on social media platforms also needs to be regulated “when it crosses a particular line” as it can be a “true threat to impressionable minds”, adding that all this cannot receive protection of under the garb of free speech.
However, in her judgement, Justice Sharma clarified that the direction to register FIR does not include a direction to arrest any of the persons accused in the case.