You will not decide what you want to watch, you are a jury of certification and not of censor: Bombay HC to CBFC

The Bombay High Court strongly reprimanded the Central Film Certification Board (CBFC) when a request for the Universal Certificate (U) for a Chidiakhana children's film was heard.

The judges of SC SC Dharmadhikari and GS Patel heard the said motion filed by the Children's Film Society India (CFSI), a nodal organization of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting producing children's films and various television programs in various Indian languages.

In January of this year, CBFC asked CFSI to mute a word from a movie scene and delete a particular scene from the movie. CFSI agreed to make these changes in June and the court then asked the CBFC to respond, to which the CBFC claimed the film showed violence, discrimination against a community and that, therefore, its contents required a U / A certificate.

A U / A certificate requires the supervision of an adult on children under the age of 12 in order to be able to watch the movie which, ironically, is a film for children.

Judge Patel noted that

"You (CBFC) are a certification office and not a censorship office, you will not decide what you want to see and see. to CBFC the intellectual morality and the power to decide which one wants to watch and see ",

The Court noted that films can be used to explain problems such as caste discrimination, drug addiction, etc. to children. Patel J. questioned the position of the CBFC on the question and asked-

"Are you ostriches?" You put your head in the sand and pretend that something does not exist! "

The Court then refers to the Udta Punjab controversy and finds that the CBFC has not learned its lesson.

decide for everyone. "

The court therefore ordered the CBFC's regional officer to file an affidavit in which it would further outline the CBFC's film certification policy. for children.

The case will be heard on August 5.