Messages like ‘you are slim’, ‘are you married?‘ to unknown woman at night amount to obscenity: Court

Mumbai court rules sending late-night messages to unknown woman as obscene, upholding conviction for WhatsApp harassment.

A sessions court in Mumbai has ruled that sending messages like “you are slim, look very smart and fair, I like you” to an unknown woman at night amounts to obscenity.

The Additional Sessions Judge (Dindoshi) D.G. Dhoble made these observations while upholding the conviction of a man booked for sending obscene messages on WhatsApp to a former corporator.

The obscenity must be judged from the perspective of an “average person applying contemporary community standards”, noted the order of February 18.

The court noted that pictures and messages were sent to the complainant between 11 pm and 12.30 am with content like “you are slim”, “you are looking very smart”, “you are fair”, “my age is 40 years”, “are you married or not?” and “I like you”.

No married woman or her husband who are “reputed and (former) corporators" would tolerate such WhatsApp messages and obscene photos, particularly when the sender and the complainant do not know each other, the court said.

“Nothing has been brought on record by the accused that there was any relationship between them,” it said.

The judge held that the messages and the act amounted to an insult to the modesty of a woman.