Madras High Court issues notice to CBFC on PIL over dialogue of the film ‘Merlin’

As per reports, the Madras High Court has issued a notice to the CBFC on a PIL seeking removal of a scene, which allegedly denigrates women, from the Tamil film ‘Merlin’. [WP 5300/2018]

The Bench comprising of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose issued a notice to the Central Board of Film Certification and JSB Film Studio, the producer of the film “Merlin” which released on February 23, 2018.The bench posted the PIL to March 16 for further hearing.

Praveena Charumathi Sampathkumar, in her public interest litigation, contended that a dialogue in the scene insulted women and sought a direction to the CBFC for removing it. The petitioner stated that she was shocked to find such a dialogue in the ‘U’ certificate film, written and directed by Keera, adding that it amounted to showing disrespect to women.

Her counsel submitted that the Cinematograph Act has laid down elaborate guidelines under which women characters in any form should not be degraded and denigrated.