Mumbai: One must be very careful about sending messages to women at night so as not to end up on the wrong side of law.
A Sessions Court in Mumbai recently ruled that messages like “you are slim, look very smart and fair, I like you” to unknown women at night amounts to obscenity and is a punishable offence.
Hearing an appeal petition, Additional Sessions Judge (Dindoshi) DG Dhoble made these observations while upholding the conviction of a man who was booked for sending obscene WhatsApp messages to a former corporator, reported PTI.
The order, passed on February 18, stated that obscenity must be judged from the perspective of an “average person applying contemporary community standards”.
According to the complainant, the accused sent her pictures and messages at midnight saying “you are slim”, “you are looking very smart”, “you are fair”, “are you married or not?” and “I like you”.
The court said no reputed married woman or her husband would tolerate such WhatsApp messages and obscene photos, especially when the sender does not know the complainant.
“Nothing has been brought on record by the accused that there was any relationship between them,” the court said.
The accused was convicted by a magistrate court in 2022 and sentenced to three-month imprisonment. The man challenged the decision in the sessions court.
The accused claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case over political rivalry, which was rejected as no evidence was presented.
The prosecution, on the other hand, has proved that the accused sent obscene WhatsApp messages and images to the woman, the court said.
“Furthermore, no woman would stake her dignity implicating an accused in a false case. Therefore, the accused is rightly convicted and sentenced by the trial court (magistrate),” the sessions judge concluded.
