India, July 20 -- The Supreme Court has said that mere swear words, profanities and vulgar expletives, however offensive or uncivil, will not amount to obscenity.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Vipul M Pancholi - while hearing a man's plea challenging a high court order that confirmed the trial court's conviction of him under Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) - observed that abusive or vulgar language by itself does not constitute the offence of obscenity under the Section.

"For an utterance to be considered obscene, it must be shown that it was lascivious, appealed to prurient interests and had the tendency to deprave and corrupt the minds of those who are exposed to it.

"Tested on this anvil, even if all the allegation...