The Delhi High Court had recently ordered the immediate removal of a controversial 2000s song “Volume 1,” sung by Yo Yo Honey Singh and Badshah, over its lyrics being grossly vulgar, obscene, and derogatory towards women.This is not the first time courts have played policing in the world of art. There have been many instances in which judicial interventions led to the removal of content deemed harmful.Hirdesh Singh, popularly known as Yo Yo Honey Singh, has come under the courts’ ire for derogatory content in many of his songs. In 2013, the singer-actor faced massive controversy and legal action over the song “Main Hoon Balatkari” (I am a rapist), which contained vulgar, anti-women lyrics, and surfaced following the 2012 Delhi gang rape.The Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered action against him, but the cases were dismissed after it was determined that the song was not sung by him, but rather uploaded by an imposter.His next chartbuster, “Makhna” in 2018, reportedly reeked of vulgar and misogynistic lyrics, specifically the phrase “Main hoon womaniser” (I am a womaniser), which prompted a legal case over “indecent representation of women”.The FIR was eventually quashed in September 2025 after the Punjab Women’s Commission and police dropped objections. Singh also faced the heat over his song “Millionaire” from his 2024 comeback album “Glory”.The album was presented by Gulshan Kumar and T-Series. The women’s rights commission had come down heavily on the rapper for the song. Another Punjabi singer, Karan Aujla, faced controversy over his song “MF Gabru” last year due to alleged vulgar, misogynistic, and disrespectful lyrics targeting women, resulting in a summons from the Punjab State Women’s Commission.Activists called for a ban, and Aujla was ordered to appear before the commission. The song “Tooh” from the 2013 Bollywood film Gori Tere Pyaar Mein also caused a row due to its suggestive lyrics, which frequently used the Punjabi word “tooh” (referring to buttocks).Critics and audience members criticized the song for being vulgar, lacking artistic depth, and contributing to the objectification of women, sparking debate over the increasing trend of innuendo in Bollywood songs.More recently, the National Commission for Women issued summons to actors Nora Fatehi and Sanjay Dutt after taking suo moto cognisance of media reports over alleged obscenity and vulgarity in their recently released song ‘Sarke Chunar Teri Sarke’ from the film ‘KD: The Devil’.Volunteers of the Yuva Parivar Sewa Samiti (YPSS) under its ‘Punjab Bachao’ (Save Punjab) took out a march in different parts of the city last year. They appealed to people to come forward against the vulgar culture, which was promoting drugs, gangsterism and obscenity.An IIM study had emerged around the release of Shahid Kapoor starrer “Udta Punjab” in 2016, which concluded that 60 per cent of the youth in the interiors of Punjab listen to songs with some profanity or violence in their lyrics. A Karnataka-based professor had filed a petition concerning several issues related to the modern Punjabi music culture.