04-Sep-2024 06:38 PM
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Mumbai, Sep 4 (Reporter) The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to direct the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to release the certificate granted to the Kangana Ranaut-starrer Hindi film “Emergency” to its co-producers in light of a Madhya Pradesh High Court order of September 3.
It may be recalled that the Madhya Pradesh High Court had directed Sikh groups, which had moved court against the film, to submit their objections to the movie and the trailer before the CBFC and had asked the latter to consider the same expeditiously.
During the hearing on a plea by Zee Entertainment Enterprises against the CBFC for allegedly withholding the certificate granted to the film scheduled to be released on September 6, a division bench of Justices B P Colabawalla and Firdosh P Pooniwalla asked the CBFC to consider the objections and take a decision on or before September 18.
“If we were to direct CBFC to release the certificate without considering objections, we would effectively be directing CBFC to breach the order of another HC. Judicial propriety demands such a course should always be avoided. Considering these circumstances, we are of the view, as on date, we are unable to direct CBFC to release the certificate as sought for by the petitioner (Zee Entertainment) in the present petition at this stage,” the bench noted in its order.
“If it is (release of film) delayed by one week, it is not going to make any difference. We are faced by MP HC order,” the court orally remarked.
“There is something else going on behind the scenes here and we do not want to get into that… If the MP HC order was not there, we would have directed to release the certificate today itself,” it added...////...