Saturday, July 9 2005 10:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: A local court in Mumbai yesterday (July 8, 2005) reserved order till July 19, on the issue of allowing the prosecution to withdraw the case of alleged nudity registered against models Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman for posing nude in an advertisement a decade ago.

Advocate Dipesh Mehta told the court would decide on July 19, whether the state can withdraw the case.

Earlier, the case had taken a new turn with social activist Pratiba Naithani filing an intervention application in a court here to oppose prosecution's plea for withdrawal of charges against the accused.

Nathani had pleaded that withdrawing the case would not only encourage nudity in advertisements and films but also send a wrong message to the society. Vulgar display of models in advertisement and films should be banned on moral grounds, she pleaded.

The prosecution had filed an application, seeking to withdraw charges against Soman, Sapre and six others on the ground that prima facie there was no case against them.

The advertisement for shoes featuring Sapre and Soman with a python draped around them, sparked a public outcry after it appeared in leading publications in 1995.

Social organisations had approached police following which; a case was filed against Soman, Sapre and six others, which included the photographers, publishers and editors who printed the advertisement.