Ten years after it booked supermodels Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman in an obscenity case, the Maharashtra government filed an application before a metropolitan court, seeking withdrawal of charges against them.

The state has also asked for withdrawal of charges against six others in the case. The state, in its application filed on June 1, said there was no prima facie case against any of the accused and hence it wanted to withdraw charges.

But the case of alleged nudity involving top took a new turn yesterday when a social activist filed an intervention application in a Mumbai court to oppose prosecution's plea for withdrawal of charges against the accused.

Sapre came to the court with her lawyer Dipesh Mehta while Soman was not present.

Social activist Prathibha Nathani filed a petition opposing the prosecution's move to withdraw the case following which the magistrate adjourned the matter to June 15 for hearing her plea.

Nathani 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 ads and films should be banned on moral grounds, she pleaded.

The advertisment 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.