- Stays proceedings pending in High Courts against Adipurush
New Delhi, July 21.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to set aside the CBFC certification for the movie Adipurush on the ground that it cannot scrutinize all movies after they have been certified by the competent authority.
“We cannot act as the appellate authority,” the bench said lamenting falling tolerance levels among the audience. “We now have to scrutinise every movie?” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul asked.
Tolerance levels are going down whether it was movies or paintings or books, he lamented. “Someone or the other’s sentiments are always hurt whether genuinely or not.” He was sitting alongside Justice Sudhansu Dhulia.
The bench refused to quash the CBFC certification granted to Adipurush, a modern-day adaptation of Ramayana, with observations to the effect that a cinematic representation would always be a departure from the original and one would have to allow some play in the joints.
The bench noted that the makers had already made some modifications in response to the objections. There is an appellate authority that sits over CBFC certification and the court would not sit on appeal, the bench said.
The movie certification was challenged by a practicing advocate who claimed that the movie had hurt Hindu sentiments by distorting religious texts.
The bench though issued notices on appeals filed by the movie makers against some High courts orders and stayed all proceedings pending before them for the time being. The movie makers were represented in this case by senior advocate Harish N. Salve.
Salve pointed out that many such petitions had been filed in High Courts. The Allahabad High Court had on June 30 had directed the makers of the movie to appear before it on July 27 and had asked the central government to form a committee to give its views on the film.