In June 2014 a group of seven women draped only in green, white and saffron banners were seen protesting against the Baduan rape incident on the busy Shangmugham road in Kochi.
Both the media and the police were quick to term it as a ‘naked protest’ following which the women were arrested by the police on charges of unlawful assembly, obscenity and rioting.
Last week however saw the Kerala High Court annul the case while considering a counter-petition filed by the accused seeking dismissal of the case. The Court observed that there was nothing obscene in the said protest and instead preferred to view it as a novel one.
Judge Alexander Thomas termed the case as misuse of the judicial process and would be denial of justice, if pursued further. It cited a Supreme Court order to reinforce its stance that nudity cannot be considered obscene in all cases.
“We had a genuine reason to protest. Moreover, there was no obscenity. The Court on realizing this simply dismissed the case,” Jolly Chirayath, one of the leaders of Sthree Koottayma who had participated in the protest told The News Minute.
Chirayath added that their idea of protest sprang from the notion that “since men humiliate women using her body as a weapon against her, we too could embarrass men by using our own bodies as a tool of protest.”