"Two respectable men cannot watch together": Supreme Court issues notice to Centre, AltBalaji, Ullu over obscenity on OTT platforms

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking regulation of obscene content on OTT platforms and social media, noting that the issue raised "serious concerns."

A Bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice A.G. Masih issued notice to the Union Government and major OTT platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, AltBalaji, Ullu Digital, and Mubi, as well as social media giants X Corp, Google, Meta Inc, and Apple. The matter was also tagged with other similar pending petitions.

During the hearing, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for the petitioners, emphasized that the plea was not adversarial but raised a "genuine concern" regarding the unchecked circulation of obscene content across social media and OTT platforms.

At this stage, Justice Gavai sought the Union Government’s response, remarking, "Yes, Mr Solicitor? Do something... something legislative." Responding to the Court’s query, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta acknowledged that he shared some of the concerns highlighted by the petitioners.

After reviewing the list of programmes submitted, he observed that obscene content was prevalent even in regular shows and described some programmes as "so perverted that even two respectable men cannot sit together and watch them."

While maintaining that complete censorship was not advisable, SG Mehta stressed the need for a degree of regulation. He informed the Court that while certain regulatory mechanisms were already in place, additional regulations were currently under consideration.

In its order, the Court noted, "This petition raises an important concern with regard to the display of various objectionable, obscene, and indecent contents on OTT platforms and social media.

The Solicitor General fairly states that contents go to the extent of perversity. He submits that certain more regulations are in contemplation," the court said.

The PIL was filed by journalist and former Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar, along with Sanjeew Newar, Sudeshna Bhattacharjya Mukherjee, Shatabdi Pande, and Svati Goyal.

Notably, the Supreme Court had recently raised similar concerns in the Ranveer Allahabadia case, urging the Union Government to consider formulating regulations to curb obscene and indecent content on digital platforms.