The Supreme Court on Jan 29, 2018 listed for final hearing Amol Palekar’s plea seeking guidelines for pre-censorship of films.
As per reports, the Centre suggested to the Apex Court to let a high court deal with the matter given the pressure on the SC of pending cases. However, given that the pleadings in the matter are complete, the Supreme Court did not deem it appropriate to refer the matter to a high court at this stage and thus declined the Centre’s suggestion.
On April 17, 2017, the apex court had issued notices to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and sought their reply to Palekar’s plea.
Palekar has sought action on the report of a committee headed by legendary filmmaker Shyam Benegal which, among other issues, has suggested that the censor board’s role should be confined to certifying films. The veteran actor- director has sought relaxation in the censorship of films by removal of pre-censorship of movies. He has challenged several provisions of the Cinematograph Act and Rules on the ground that pre-censorship of films was irrelevant in the internet era.
Image source: here
