Any nude or sexual content in art, medicine, or literature is automatically illegal under this section.

Courts judge the work as a whole in its context and by contemporary community standards, so serious literary, artistic, medical, or scientific work is not automatically obscene just because it depicts nudity or sexuality.

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 292

repealed

Sale, etc., of obscene books, etc.

For the purposes of sub-section (2), a book, pamphlet, paper, writing, drawing, painting representation, figure or any other object, shall be deemed to be obscene if it is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect, or (where it comprises two or more distinct items) the effect of any one of its items, is, if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it. Whoever: sells, lets to hire, distributes, publicly exhibits or in any manner puts into circulation, or for purposes of sale, hire, distribution, public exhibition or circulation, makes, reduces or has in his possession any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, drawing, painting, representation or figure or any other obscene object whatsoever, or imports, exports or conveys any obscene object for any of the purposes aforesaid, or knowing or having reason to believe that such object will be sold, let to hire, distributed or publicly exhibited or in any manner put into circulation, or takes part in or receives profits from any business in the course of which he knows or has reason to believe that any such obscene objects are, for any of the purposes aforesaid, made, produced, purchased, kept, imported, exported, conveyed, publicly exhibited or in any manner put into circulation, or advertises or makes known by any means whatsoever that any person is engaged or is ready to engage in any act which is an offence under this section, or that any such obscene object can be procured from or through any person, or offers or attempts to do any act which is an offence under this section, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, and with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees, and, in the event of a second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, and also with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees.§

Why this exists

This section balances free expression against protecting public morality, aiming to prevent the commercial spread of material considered obscene under prevailing legal standards, rather than banning all sexual or nude content outright. Courts have repeatedly had to define where art, literature, and free speech end and criminal obscenity begins. Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, this offence continues under a renumbered section.

How courts read it

Indian courts initially applied a strict test asking whether material would deprave and corrupt even the most vulnerable reader, most famously in the case involving Lady Chatterley's Lover, which upheld a conviction under this section. Later, the Supreme Court shifted toward a 'contemporary community standards' test in a case involving a magazine photograph, holding that material must be judged as a whole, in context, and by the standards of society at the relevant time, rather than by isolated passages or images taken out of context.

Common misconceptions

Myth: Any nude or sexual content in art, medicine, or literature is automatically illegal under this section.
Fact: Courts judge the work as a whole in its context and by contemporary community standards, so serious literary, artistic, medical, or scientific work is not automatically obscene just because it depicts nudity or sexuality.