Mumbai, June 8: The Tuff shoes ad case took a new turn as two persons filed an intervention application today, opposing the Maharashtra government’s move to drop charges of obscenity against models Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman, reports our special correspondent.

Pratibha Nathani, one of the applicants, said withdrawing the case would not only encourage nudity in advertisements and films, it would also send a wrong message to the society.

Vulgar display of models in ads and films should be banned on moral grounds, said Nathani, a lecturer who has made a name by frequently raising her voice on issues of “public morality”.

The state government had booked Sapre (in court on Wednesday in PTI picture above) and Soman in 1995 on grounds of obscenity for appearing in the nude in the ad. Six others were also booked. But the government, in an application to a metropolitan court hearing the case, decided to drop the charges. The plea was to come up today.

The court adjourned the matter till June 15, asking Nathani to “satisfy the court” on how her application can be admitted before it.