Mindyard | The issue of Obscenity has vexed the Courts in India and abroad for a long time now. The intriguing question has always been the same, i.e., what should be the standards to qualify something as obscene in the eyes of law? In the United Kingdom, way back in 1868, the Court laid down the Hicklin test in Regina v. Hicklin (1868 L.R. 2 Q.B. 360), and held that: ―The test of Obscenity is whether the tendency of the matter charged as Obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall.‖ Hicklin test postulated that a publication has to be judged for obscenity based on isolated passages of a work considered out of context and judged by their apparent influence on most susceptible readers, such as children or weak-minded adults. However, this test was later rejected by most of the jurisdictions. There were many judgments where it was stipulated by the Indian Courts that, Obscenity has to be judged in the context of contemporary social mores, current socio-moral attitude of the community and the prevalent norms of acceptability/ susceptibility of the community, in relation to matters in issue. [For example, in Ranjit D. Udeshi v. State of Maharashtra AIR 1965 SC 881; Chandrakant Kalyandas Kakodar v. State of Maharashtra 1969 (2) SCC 687 etc.] These judgements indicated that the concept of Obscenity would change with the passage of time and what might have been ―obscene‖ at one point of time would not be considered as obscene at a later period. This came to be known as ―Community Standards Test‖. In Bobby Art International & Ors. v. Om Pal Singh Hoon (1996) 4 SCC 1, the Court, upholding the Community standards test held that, complete message and context of the objectionable scene/firm/picture etc., needs to be examined in order to find out whether the alleged material is obscene or not. The difference between Hicklin Test and Community Standards Test is: The former focuses on the susceptibility of the minds of individuals to get corrupted while the later hinges upon the context, intended meaning and contemporaneous socio-cultural environment of the society., As per Hicklin Test, a nude picture of a women per se can be obscene while as per the later, the picture should be suggestive of deprave mind and designed to excite sexual passion in persons who are likely to see it., The former considers Obscenity as a changing concept with changing times while the later does not., All of the above.

The issue of Obscenity has vexed the Courts in India and abroad for a long time now. The intriguing question has always been the same, i.e., what should be the standards to qualify something as obscene in the eyes of law? In the United Kingdom, way back in 1868, the Court laid down the Hicklin test in Regina v. Hicklin (1868 L.R. 2 Q.B. 360), and held that: ―The test of Obscenity is whether the tendency of the matter charged as Obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall.‖ Hicklin test postulated that a publication has to be judged for obscenity based on isolated passages of a work considered out of context and judged by their apparent influence on most susceptible readers, such as children or weak-minded adults. However, this test was later rejected by most of the jurisdictions. There were many judgments where it was stipulated by the Indian Courts that, Obscenity has to be judged in the context of contemporary social mores, current socio-moral attitude of the community and the prevalent norms of acceptability/ susceptibility of the community, in relation to matters in issue. [For example, in Ranjit D. Udeshi v. State of Maharashtra AIR 1965 SC 881; Chandrakant Kalyandas Kakodar v. State of Maharashtra 1969 (2) SCC 687 etc.] These judgements indicated that the concept of Obscenity would change with the passage of time and what might have been ―obscene‖ at one point of time would not be considered as obscene at a later period. This came to be known as ―Community Standards Test‖. In Bobby Art International & Ors. v. Om Pal Singh Hoon (1996) 4 SCC 1, the Court, upholding the Community standards test held that, complete message and context of the objectionable scene/firm/picture etc., needs to be examined in order to find out whether the alleged material is obscene or not.

The difference between Hicklin Test and Community Standards Test is:

Options

The former focuses on the susceptibility of the minds of individuals to get corrupted while the later hinges upon the context, intended meaning and contemporaneous socio-cultural environment of the society.

As per Hicklin Test, a nude picture of a women per se can be obscene while as per the later, the picture should be suggestive of deprave mind and designed to excite sexual passion in persons who are likely to see it.

The former considers Obscenity as a changing concept with changing times while the later does not.

All of the above.

Correct Answer :

Option A

Solution :

Correct Answer: The former focuses on the susceptibility of the minds of individuals to get corrupted while the later hinges upon the context, intended meaning and contemporaneous socio-cultural environment of the society.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

1. Understanding the Hicklin Test:
Based on the passage, the Hicklin test, established in Regina v. Hicklin (1868), determines obscenity by assessing whether the material tends to "deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences." Under this test, a work is judged based on isolated passages taken out of context and evaluated according to its potential impact on the most vulnerable or susceptible readers (such as children or weak-minded adults).

2. Understanding the Community Standards Test:
In contrast, the Community Standards Test evaluates alleged obscenity by examining the work in its full context, taking into account the overall message, intended meaning, and contemporary social norms or moral attitudes of the community. As affirmed in Bobby Art International v. Om Pal Singh Hoon (1996), the complete message and context of the material must be examined rather than isolated passages.

3. Comparing the Options:
- Option 1 accurately reflects this distinction: the Hicklin Test focuses on the susceptibility of individual minds to corruption, whereas the Community Standards Test relies on the context, intended meaning, and contemporaneous socio-cultural environment.
- Option 3 is incorrect because the passage specifies that it is the Community Standards Test (not the Hicklin Test) that treats obscenity as a concept changing over time.

Therefore, the primary distinction is correctly stated in the first option.

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