CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, 1973: s.482 - Quashing of proceedings - German magazine published an article with a picture of world renowned Tennis player, posing nude and covering the breast of his dark-skinned fiancée with his hands which was photographed by none other than her father - The couple spoke against apartheid and proclaimed that true love has no boundaries - The article reproduced in Indian magazine and newspaper - Criminal proceedings under ss.292, IPC and u/ss. 3, 4 and 6 of Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 against the editor and publisher of magazine and newspaper - High Court declining to quash the proceedings - On appeal, Held: While judging as to whether a particular photograph, an article or book is obscene, regard must be had to the contemporary values and national standards and not the standard of a group of susceptible or sensitive persons - Hicklin test is not the correct test to be applied to determine "what is obscenity" - Those sex-related materials which have a tendency of “exciting lustful thoughts" can be held to be obscene, however, obscenity has to be judged from the point of view of an average person, by applying contemporary community standards - The said picture has to be viewed in the background in which it was shown, and the message it has to convey to the public and the world at large - The message it conveyed was eradicate evil of racism and apartheid in the “society and promote love and marriage between white skinned man and a black skinned woman - When viewed in that angle, the picture or the article cannot be Said to be objectionable so as to initiate proceedings u/s.292 IPC or u/ s.4 of the Act, 1986 - Magistrate, without appreciation of background in which the photograph was shown, proposed to initiate prosecution proceedings against the appellants - High Court should have exercised powers u/s.482 to secure the ends of justice - Criminal proceedings initiated: against the appellants set aside - Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 - ss.3, 4, 6 - Penal Code, 1860 - s.292.