The Delhi High Court Thursday directed to take down and block the circulation of a song by singer and producer Honey Singh and rapper Badshah, with the court finding it “inappropriate” and “unacceptable” to even reproduce the name of the song in its order.
The order comes nearly two decades after the song was released and has been in circulation.

The order came in response to a petition by an organisation named Hindu Shakti Dal objecting to the ‘controversial’ song, which Singh had refrained from publicly admitting to have sung so far. The petition, however, claimed that Singh “recently during a concert… sung verses from his infamous song ‘Vol.1’, further confirming that the same was sung by him.”

The organisation submitted that the “contents of the song are objectionable, vulgar and derogatory towards females, further the lyrics are provocative of violence towards females.”

The petitioner-organisation also relied on the Supreme Court’s characterisation of comments of podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia, as “filthy”, “disgusting” and reflective of a “dirty mind” that has been “vomited” into the public domain,” to make its point on why the song should be blocked from circulation, in compliance with the IT Act and Rules.

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Justice Purushaindra Kaurav, agreeing to the contentions raised by the petitioner, observed, “This is one of the rare cases where the conscience of the court is shocked to its absolute core. It is one of those unfortunate instances where the court finds that the song is grossly vulgar, patently obscene, and derogatory towards women, artistic values, and social norms. The lyrics are not merely disrespectful or offensive but are ex facie calculated to normalise the treatment of women as objects of ridicule and sexual gratification.”

After perusing the lyrics of the song as well listening to it in chamber, as recorded in the court’s order, Justice Kaurav noted that interim directions are required to be issued, “as allowing dissemination of such content on online platforms, including access by minors, cannot be countenanced under the guise of artistic freedom of speech. No civilised society can permit such content to remain freely available or be monetised.”

The court directed Honey Singh and Badshah, and any other persons “claiming rights in the impugned obscene song(s),” to “immediately take down the URLs hosting such content from social media platforms or any other online locations.”

It also directed for blocking of the links forthwith by the authorities of the government and social media intermediaries concerned.