Import of sex toys in India: What the law says

But given the augmenting consumer choices, it is essential to understand the legal landscape on how products like sex or adult toys are regulated when it comes to sales in India, manufacturing and distribution – both online and offline.

Sex toys market in India

A 2024 report by Grand View Research predicts that India’s sex toy market will cross 1 billion dollars by 2030, growing at an annual rate of 9.9%. Meanwhile, TechSci Research estimated the industry at 91 million dollars in FY2020, with a rapid 16% annual growth—making it one of the fastest-growing consumer segments in the country.

A sex toys selling website ThatsPersonal.com, 2023 survey revealed that Mumbai is the biggest city with Delhi in the sale of sex toys. However, the national capital region which includes Delhi, Gurugram, and Noida clubbed together overtakes Mumbai in terms of sales. The other top cities are Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Obscenity laws

Despite having a market of billion dollars, and significant consumer base in metro cities of the country, sex toys or adult toys market in India does not fall into the clearly expressed legislation.

However, the regulation of manufacturing, import, sales and distribution of sex toys in India primarily relies on the complex web of laws, which includes Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 to The Customs Act.

Section 294 and 295 of BNS prohibits the sale, advertisement, or public display of obscene content, including digital media.

Under Section 295, obscenity is defined as material that is sexually suggestive, meant to provoke sexual thoughts, or likely to harm people’s morals or behavior.

The provision criminalises the sale, hire, distribution, or exhibit of obscene materials to children.

IT Act 2000

Section 67 of the IT Act described punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.

It says, “whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished”.

The first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and with fine which may extend to five lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees.

Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act

Indecent Representation of Woman (Prohibition) Act, 1986, prohibits indecent depiction of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner.

Online marketplaces

Supreme Court lawyer Tushar Kumar said that online marketplaces are able to lawfully offer intimate wellness devices for sale because the proscription contained in Sections 294 and 295 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) attaches itself to “obscene material” and not to sexual-wellness goods per se.

He further highlighted that the statutory prohibition is directed at the publication, display or circulation of matter that is “lascivious, prurient, or capable of corrupting morals”.

A physical device, devoid of any sexually explicit representation, does not ipso facto become obscene only because it is used for sexual purposes, he added.

“Consequently, e-commerce platforms position such products within the taxonomy of ‘personal wellness’, ‘body massagers’, or ‘intimate health devices’, accompanied by non-inflammatory imagery and medically-styled descriptions, thereby keeping the offering outside the mischief of the BNS,” Kumar said.

Describing the ambiguity surrounding sex toys in India, he said, “Legal permissibility stems not from any affirmative legislative sanction, but from the absence of an express statutory prohibition.”

Rules for import

In the Delhi High Court, the Customs department made a ground for the ban on the import of sex toys misdeclared as body massagers, citing a Department of Revenue notification from 1964.

According to January 18, 1964 Department of Revenue’s notification, any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, drawing, representation, figure or article import are prohibited.

The Department of Revenue issued this notification by exercising the power given by the Section 11 of the Customs Act, 1962, which grants the central government the power to prohibit the imports of goods that are considered obscene.

Kumar argued that the continued seizure of these goods by Customs and allied enforcement agencies is rooted not in statutory command but in residual, morality-driven enforcement inherited from instruments like the 1964 Customs Notification prohibiting import of “obscene or indecent articles”.

This notification, unamended for six decades and never harmonised with contemporary norms, effectively enables officers to exercise subjective discretion and to conflate “sexuality” with “obscenity.”

Grey area

Noting a lack of consistency in customs’ application of the 1964 prohibition notification, the high court stressed that any embargo on imports must be applied uniformly, not selectively.

Citing the ambiguity and inconsistency on the import rules of the sex toys, the court instructed that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs “proceed with conducting the inter-ministerial consultation in respect of the uniform policy permitting or prohibiting import of products declared as ‘body massagers’ or sex toys that would be in line with contemporary times”.

On the point whether the sex toy market is a thriving one, Kumar said despite restrictions on advertisement or exhibition of obscene matter, importers and manufacturers lawfully engage in the sale of sexual-wellness devices by presenting them through non-obscene, clinically-worded channels, classifying them under recognised tariff heads for mechanical massagers, and maintaining packaging and promotional materials free of any graphic or prurient depiction.

“Indian law imposes no prohibition on the manufacture or trade of such goods, and Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution protects the freedom to carry on legitimate business in the absence of a statutory embargo. Hence, the compliance obligation attaches not to the product class but to the manner of its portrayal. It is only when the marketing of such goods crosses into explicit sexual representation that the statutory bar on obscenity becomes attracted,” he said.

What is obscenity?

Kumar said the definitional contours of obscenity under Indian law, even as carried forward into the BNS, continue to focus on visual representation and prurient appeal, rather than on the nature or purpose of a physical object.

“The difficulty lies not in the substance of the law but in its inconsistent enforcement, hence the pressing need for a uniform, modern policy that eliminates discretion, aligns trade norms with contemporary social understanding, and brings coherence to a sector long governed by ambiguity rather than statute,” he said.