Grihalakshmi Breastfeeding Controversy: Kerala HC Dismisses Petition Against the Magazine, Says It Did Not See Anything Obscene in The Picture

In a major relief to Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi, the Kerala High Court has dismissed the petition filed against it by a complainant. In its ruling, the bench said that despite their best efforts, they failed to see anything obscene about the photoshoot, which had the state divided.

In the March issue of the Grihalakshmi magazine, prominent Malayali poetess and writer Gilu Joseph had posed breastfeeding a child on the magazine슬롯사이트™s cover. Although the move was largely hailed as a much-needed step towards destigmatising breastfeeding, some sections of the society were offended by the bold photoshoot.

It sparked a controversy in the state, which led to a case being filed against the magazine at the Court of Judicial Magistrate in Kollam by advocate Vinod Mathew against the publishers and Joseph. The petition was filed by one Mr. Felix MA and focused on the 슬롯사이트œobscene슬롯사이트� nature of the photograph used for the cover and the supposedly demeaning caption, which was anti men.

As per the petition, the magazine cover had violated provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and Rules and Section 45 of the Juvenile Justice Act. Mr. Felix had also invoked provisions of Indecent Representation of Women Act of 1986 and Article 39 (e) and (f) of the Indian constitution.

But the Kerala HC has refused to term the breastfeeding cover as obscene. In response to the petition, the court noted that morals were an elusive concept and that 슬롯사이트œone man슬롯사이트™s vulgarity is another man슬롯사이트™s lyric,슬롯사이트� broadly implying that it was just a case of jaundice eyes.

Livelaw.in reported that the bench comprising Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu pointed out that they failed to see anything obscene about the picture, despite their best efforts. Neither was there anything objectionable in the caption for men, as it was alleged in the petition. 슬롯사이트œWe looked at the picture with the same eyes we look at the paintings of artists like Raja Ravi Varma. As the beauty lie in the beholder슬롯사이트™s eye, so does obscenity perhaps.슬롯사이트�

They also noted that the sections charged by the petitioner Felix didn슬롯사이트™t apply o the magazine, because nothing about the picture altered the 슬롯사이트œthe society슬롯사이트™s moral fabric.슬롯사이트�

Another advocate, Jiyas Jamal from Aluva, Kerala had also filed a petition against the model, the magazine and the parents of the child who was featured on the cover. The compliant states that the model who was not lactating had 슬롯사이트œstuffed슬롯사이트� her breast into the child슬롯사이트™s mouth just for the photoshoot. And in doing so, all the three parties have disregarded the child슬롯사이트™s health and its rights have been exploited.

The primary contention of the petition is that the child was used for commercial purpose, putting the 슬롯사이트œrights of the newborn babies in danger.슬롯사이트� The petition alleged that the cover 슬롯사이트œtricked the baby into thinking if the model is its mother and that it will get milk."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 21, 2018 04:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).