Bombay HC rules body massager cannot be classified as 'sex toy', import prohibition denied
A body massager cannot be categorised as an adult sex toy and hence cannot be included in the list of items prohibited for import, the Bombay High Court has said. The Commissioner of Customs had confiscated the goods claiming that the body massagers could be used as adult sex toys and such items are prohibited for import.
FollowA body massager cannot be categorised as an adult sex toy and hence cannot be included in the list of items prohibited for import, the Bombay High Court has said. On Wednesday, a division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Kishor Sant overturned a Customs Department decision detaining body massagers.
The commodities were confiscated by the Commissioner of Customs on the grounds that the body massagers may be used as adult sex toys, which are forbidden for import. The Commissioner of Customs' claim that a body massager might be used as an adult sex toy was obviously a fabrication of his mind, according to the HC.
It denied the Commissioner of Customs' plea to set aside the Customs department's decision to confiscate consignments comprising body massagers, which had been issued by the Central Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal in May 2023.
In April 2022, the adjudicating official, the Commissioner of Customs, declined to clear the consignment including body massagers. The reason given was that the body massagers were adult sex toys, which meant they couldn't be imported according to the Customs notification from January 1964.
The high court stated that the commissioner's findings are "peculiar and clearly appear to be quite astonishing and too far-fetched, when he reduces in writing his vivid imagination on what an equipment for a body massage would be and, more particularly, on his perception on the perceived uses."
"It was clearly the figment of the Commissioner's imagination and/or his personal perception that the goods are prohibited items," the High Court stated. The court emphasized that body massagers are traded in domestic markets and are not considered as forbidden commodities.
The Customs Commissioner had also relied on section 292(2) of the Indian Penal Code which says any book, pamphlet, paper, and drawing or any other objects that is deemed to be obscene if it is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest. The bench dismissed the petition filed by the Commissioner of Customs and upheld the tribunal order.
