NEW DELHI, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A New Delhi high court judge has dismissed an obscenity charge against a married couple in India who kissed in public, observers say.

Wondering how police could have brought charges against an "expression of love by a young married couple," Judge S. Muralidhar quashed the criminal proceedings against the 28-year-old man and his 23-year-old wife, the BBC reported Tuesday.


New Delhi city officials had begun criminal proceedings against the couple for "sitting in an objectionable position near a metro (railway station) pillar and kissing, due to which passersby were feeling bad," the broadcaster said.

Muralidhar, however, said that even if police reports were accurate "it is inconceivable how … an expression of love by a young married couple would attract an offense of obscenity and trigger the coercive process of law."

The couple's lawyer told a local newspaper that obscenity charges should only be applied when an act is so obscene that it encourages depravity or annoys the public, the BBC reported.