The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to respond to a petition filed by filmmaker Amol Palekar, challenging the “pre-censorship” of movies. In its notice to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the bench has asked the Centre to direct the Central Board of Film Certification to implement the recommendations of the Shyam Benegal-led panel, PTI reported.
In his petition, Palekar has pointed out that the CBFC does not have any member with a legal background, which leads the board to repeatedly violate filmmakers’ fundamental right to speech and expression. The actor-director has also challenged provisions of the Cinematography Act, calling the “pre-censorship” of films irrelevant in the internet era.
The Benegal-led committee, which had been set up by the I&B Ministry to revamp the censor board, had submitted an interim report with its recommendations to the Centre in June 2016. It had recommended a new “Adult with Caution” category, as well as two classifications under the Universal under Adult Supervision, or U/A, rating – U/A 12+ and U/A 15+. In March this year, Benegal, a renowned filmmaker, had said he was clueless why the recommendations had not been implemented yet, according to PTI.
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