The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has asked the Centre as to which authority undertakes film certifi♏cation for the display of content on OTT and social media platforms.
ꦅThe court has asked the Centre and Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to file a counter affidavit apprising it whether there is any other arrangement for OTT films or whether CBFC is authorised to give certificates to them too.
The court has fixed August 13, 2024, for the next 🐬hearཧing of the case.
The order was passed by a benꦫch of justices Rajan Roy and Om Prakash Shukla o🅰n a PIL filed by Dipankar Kumar.
In the petition, Kumar has alleged that objectionable 𒁃comments have been made on the people of Bihar in 'Taktavar Policewala'- a ▨Hindi adaptation of the Telugu movie 'Dhee Ante Dhee'.
The petitioner said that the film, originally made in the Telugu language in 2015, is available on YouTube and demand⛎ed cancellation of the censor board certific♏ate of the film.
While hearinꦰg the petition, the court-appointed advoc🌳ate general Kuldeep Pati Tripathi as amicus curiae and asked him to cooperate in the hearing of the case.
After watching the film, the amicus curiae told the court that it contains very objectionable dialogues, which can lead to discrimination ba🐼sed on region, bitterness among people of different states and disturbance of 𒅌public peace.
On this, the cour✨t sought a reply fro🐲m the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and CBFC.
The cou💟rt has also made it clear that if the reply is not received by the next hearing, a gazetted officer of the CBFC will have to appear for the hearing through video conferencing.
