“one man’s vulgarity is another man’s lyric”….
Stoked by the use of such flourishes in Kerala High Court’s judgment. I’d want to read more from
Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu for being so lyrical yet delivering righteous, clear cut judgments. Outstanding use of language in legal realm. May be Ph.D in literature in legal judgments seem a better place to explore!
On the breastfeeding woman image on magazine cover, they ruled –
“We do not see, despite our best efforts, obscenity in the picture, nor do we find anything objectionable in the caption, for men. We looked at the picture with the same eyes we look at the paintings of artists like Raja Ravi Varma. As the beauty lies in the beholder’s eye, so does obscenity, perhaps.”
Outstanding again, to cite Dalrymple, make a point and give it back to the petitioner –
The body, in other words, is not some tainted appendage to be whipped into submission, but potentially the vehicle of divinity. In this tradition, the sensuous and the sacred are not opposed. They are one, and the sensuous is seen as an integral part
of the sacred. The gods were always depicted as super-humanly beautiful, for if the image was not beautiful then the deities could not be persuaded to inhabit the statue. We could not express better than what Dalrymple has said in his lyrical prose.
Take a bow! A fine piece of judgement to take back to classrooms of this country!
Contested Realities 