Allahabad High Court Questions Centre On OTT Film Certification

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has asked the Centre as to which authority undertakes film certification for the display of content on OTT and social media platforms.

The court has asked the Centre and Central Board of Film Certification 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 hearing of the case.

The order was passed by a bench of justices Rajan Roy and Om Prakash Shukla on a PIL filed by Dipankar Kumar.

In the petition, Kumar has alleged that objectionable comments 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The petitioner said that the film, originally made in the Telugu language in 2015, is available on YouTube and demanded cancellation of the censor board certificate of the film.

While hearing the petition, the court-appointed advocate 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 based on region, bitterness among people of different states and disturbance of public peace.

On this, the court sought a reply from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and CBFC.

The court 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.