Cannot attribute obscene words to Gandhiji: SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that no one had the poetic license to use a historically respected person like Mahatma Gandhi as a character and attribute obscene words to him in any fiction, poetry or any type of literary work.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said if an author, writer or poet used historically respected personalities as fictional characters than attribution of obscene words would make him liable to face penal action.

The court said in such writings involving historically respected figures as fictional characters, their depiction and unwarranted attribution of obscene words to them would invite rigorous test of contemporaneous community parameters.

The SC upheld framing of charges against the author who used Mahatma Gandhi as fictional character in his poetry and attributed obscene words to him.