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Thursday, Sep 23, 2004

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Police to get centralised power to tackle obscenity

By Our Special Correspondent

GANDHINAGAR, SEPT. 22. The Gujarat Government has decided to give more powers to the police to take action against social obscenity disseminated through advertisements in print or electronic media, posters, photographs, stage shows or any other means.

The Cabinet at its meeting here today under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, decided to centralise the powers under the Obscenity Act to the Home Department, taking it away from different other departments. It, however, has not changed the punishment under the Act.

Briefing mediapersons, the Cabinet spokesman and Urban Development Minister, I.K. Jadeja, said the basic idea was to strengthen the actions under the Act to try to remove obscenity from public life.

He stated that under the existing system, police had no powers to register a complaint against obscenity in public places or through the media, which were handled by different departments and punitive actions were less.

None of the departments had any power to take suo moto action but had to act on a complaint from the public.

Any complaint of publication of obscene photographs or posters was dealt by the Women's Welfare Department, obscene or objectionable scenes in stage shows would fall under the purview of the Youth and Cultural Affairs Department while any violation of the Act by the print or electronic media was handled by the Information Department.

Under the centralised system, the police would have the power to register a complaint on its own and pursue the matter.

The punishment under the Act — up to two years imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 2,000 for first violation and up to five years imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5,000 any subsequent offence — had remained unchanged, he said.

Replying to a question about certain obscene television channels, Mr. Jadeja said if the airing of the offensive channel fell within the purview of the State, action under the Act could be initiated by the police.

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