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A magazine published a semi-nude photograph of a woman, in a campaign against breast cancer. The…

In Aveek Sarkar v. State of West Bengal, (2014), decided under section 292 IPC (now section 294 BNS), the Supreme Court discarded the Hicklin test in favour of contemporary…

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A magazine published a semi-nude photograph of a woman, in a campaign against breast cancer. The tag-line of the photograph was to encourage women to get regular medical tests done to ensure early detection of the disease. A respected lawyer in Delhi felt that the photograph was obscene and would result in young minds being corrupted. Hence, he filed a complaint against the editor of the magazine invoking section 294 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. In light of the Supreme Court's decision in Aveek Sarkar v. State of West Bengal (2014) on the test of obscenity, which of the following is not a standard that should be used to judge whether the photograph is obscene?

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Correct answer A

In Aveek Sarkar v. State of West Bengal, (2014), decided under section 292 IPC (now section 294 BNS), the Supreme Court discarded the Hicklin test in favour of contemporary community standards, judged in the context and message of the material, so the standard that should not be used is "If the picture has the effect of depraving or debauching the minds of the persons who may see the picture, it would be obscene".

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