Trade bodies welcome apex court verdict

By Amitabh Parashar

NEW DELHI: The Delhi-UP film trade bodies have welcomed the recent Supreme Court judgement which says that once an expert body has cleared the impact of the film on the public and certified the same, the Centre cannot prevent its release on the grounds of law and order. A bench, comprising Justice VN Khare and Justice SN Variava, dismissed an appeal from the union government against the judgement of a high court striking down Section 6 (1) of the Cinematograph Act, which conferred the power of review on the government even after the film was released.

Says GS Mayawala, general secretary, Motion Pictures Association of Delhi-UP, “It is a significant ruling for the film industry. We are hopeful that after the ruling, the misuse of power and harassment of producers and distributors will come to an end.”

The government of India, during the hearing of the case, had contended before the Supreme Court that it needed to retain the power of review of any decision of the CBFC or tribunal, because films often created law and order problems even after censorship.

But the bench, in its ruling, observed “In any democratic society there are bound to be divergent views. Merely because a small section of society has a different view from that of the Tribunal and chooses to express its views by unlawful means, would be no excuse for the executive to review a decision of the tribunal.”

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