After a 14-year court battle, models Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman, along with six others, were acquitted on Thursday of the charge of obscenity in connection with the controversial Tuff Shoes ad.

The print ad, which appeared in 1995, showed Sapre and Soman, who were then in a relationship, in a clinch, naked but for the shoes and a live python slithering around their taut bodies.

The ad caused a furore. An outraged Mumbai Grahak Panchayat lodged a complaint with the social service branch of the Mumbai police. The police booked Soman, Sapre, photographer Prabuddha Dasgupta, Cine Blitz editor Rita Mehta, Chitralekha and G magazine owner Madhuri Kotak, and Tuff Shoes director Ashish Mohan for publishing, printing, and circulating obscene material (section 292(2) of the Indian Penal Code) and under sections 3 and 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

The discharge applications filed by the accused were rejected by the sessions court and then the high court. In 2006-07, the state sought to drop the case, but activist Pratibha Naithani intervened, stating that there was an "avalanche of obscenity" in Mumbai that needed to be checked.

Mohan Jaykar, advocate for Soman and Mehta, argued that obscenity is subject to societal perception and an NGO cannot act as the moral police. He said that while Naithani had alleged that the content was obscene and could turn men into sexual predators, she had brought no witnesses to testify to this.

Jaykar also told the court that Soman and Sapre wore body-hugging skin-coloured outfits that did not amount to "indecent exposure". Kotak's advocate Ashish Chavan told the court that though the magazine is alleged to have carried the advertisement, the prosecution had brought no evidence to support its claim. Though the court's detailed order has not been made public yet, magistrate MJ Mirza pronounced the verdict acquitting all eight of all charges.

Comments compiled by Ankit Ajmera, Riddhi Doshi and Sujata Chakraborty