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Delhi court summons HLL, cable TV unit over obscene ice-cream advert

A Delhi court has summoned two companies -- Hindustan Lever Limited and Cable Video (India) Limited -- and its senior officials in connection with the production of an allegedly obscene advertisement for a popular brand of ice-cream (Wall's).

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R K Gauba noted that the advertisement had been withdrawn after he had suo motu sought a police report on the basis of a newspaper article, but said this did not come in the way of legal action.

The summons to the accused have been issued for October 11. Gauba said he saw the video clipping of the advertisement in court and the materials seized by the police following his order in June.

Apart from the companies, the others summoned were HLL senior vice-president Dependerjeet Singh Sachdeva, Joseph George, who prepared the advertisement for CVIL and its chief executive officer Ram Thakur Dass Hingorani and senior vice-president George Sebastian. The magistrate did not summon the four models at this stage as he said that there was no evidence to show that they had been informed about the final product.

Gauba said, ''The vulgarity in such means of entertainment as TV/cable networks was reaching alarming levels. Some beginning (of checks and balances) has to be made somewhere. The opening scene of the advertisement gave the impression that the male models were nude and the female models looked down in what is suggestive of examination of the crotches. It appears to be an effort in gross contempt of the law of obscenity."

The magistrate said the advertisement was prima facie obscene within the meaning of the expression used in Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code and would also be punishable under Sections 3 and 6 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986.

The news item in a Delhi newspaper had said that the Delhi-based Television Viewers' Forum had filed a complaint against the ''mate your stick'' advertisement of a prominent icecream brand with the Advertisement Standards Council of India in Bombay. In his order in June, Gauba had asked the police to confiscate the audio-visual materials relating to the advertisement, and to identify the persons involved with it.

UNI

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