Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh must spend six weeks pouring over sexy photographs often of scantily clad women or couples in steamy embraces promoting the products after the Supreme Court said they may breach India’s tough obscenity laws.
“You also have to tell us if such advertisements may constitute a penal offence,” a newspaper reported the bench as saying.
Singh’s office confirmed to AFP that the court issued the order on Tuesday, but declined to comment further.
Conservatives in deeply religious India often register complaints with police under the obscenity law, which carries a maximum punishment of two years in jail and five years for repeat offenders.
Bollywood actors often find themselves slapped with such charges for their movies that some see as crossing the lines of decency. Former porn star turned actor Sunny Leone was hit with an obscenity charge last year for her online movies and photographs. Police are obliged to register a case when complaints are made.
The latest case came after condom manufacturers appealed against an earlier High Court order banning lurid pictures from their packets on the grounds that they were obscene and an affront to Indian culture.
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